Novice
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: A wizard's career doesn't truly begin until that first, real, big job. Unfortunately, however, this isn't as easy an accomplishment as one would think. - Part of the Remember Me Series.
1. Chapter 1

If there was anything Haven Dreyar resented, it was the freedom she saw the other children possessing while she, the eldest daughter of Master Laxus, had hardly any.

This wasn't wholly true, of course, considering the fact that she was able to go out on jobs and did spend a lot of her days, ambling about Magnolia, but still. She'd grown up hearing stories about how her aunts and uncles and family friends, as well as both her parents, were able to travel all about Fiore from young ages and fulfill their magical destines. She felt like she was being held back from that.

But Locke, Navi, and Ravan? Her two friends and one mortal enemy? Oh, they had all the freedom a child could ever want. And they did nothing with it.

That was the most frustrating part. Navi, fine, her mother tried to keep a reign on her, but her father sure did. It was much the same for Locke. They could, in theory push the limits and boundaries and they never did any of that. Any of it. It was so aggravating. And Ravan's sort of caretaker Erza would probably only beam with pride if he took of for the capital on a job above his qualifications.

If Haven had any of their parents, then she would definitely be on her way to being the best mage every by now. She was certain of it. But no, she had stupid Laxus, who never took her out on jobs with him, at least, even, because he was the stupid guild master and her mother, Satan Soul, one of the strongest people ever, she rivaled Erza, would only sigh and tell her that she had no desire to do those sorts of things any longer.

Imagine having all the power in the world (and between Raijin and Satan Soul, Haven was certain her parents did) and deciding to stay in stupid old Magnolia, at the dumb old guildhall. Was that not the lamest thing ever? Haven felt like it was the lamest thing ever.

It was so frustrating, all of it. She felt as if she were being handicapped by things that, under normal circumstances, would bless her. But her mother was scared of her going too far away, it seemed, because of what happened all those years ago to her Aunt Lisanna, and liked her to just take simple jobs. There would be the tougher ones when she was older.

And yeah, okay, fine, but what was Laxus' excuse? Something to do with stupid Ivan, she was sure. He never said it, he never would, but Haven was certain that a lot of his hesitance rode on that. And that was so dumb. Laxus was so dumb. She hated him.

He probably didn't want her to be strong either. She bet on that one as well. He sucked like that. He was probably afraid that if, like, she got super strong, without a lacrima in her, without a cheater magic like him, then it would make him seem weak and like a loser.

Yeah.

It had to be that one.

Haven had had enough of this one day as she sat around the guildhall, listening to her stupid little sister Marin and Kai, Ravan's idiotic brother, tell Evergreen about their adventures the night before. And, by adventures, Haven meant how they'd gone out with Erza into the city late at night, to pick something up last minute at the market.

It was so mind numbing and dumb and it just wasn't fair! She was being held down by everyone around her and forced to stifle her growth. This couldn't keep happening. She had to do something.

"I was real worried about getting lost, it being night and all," Kai was going on as Evergreen seemed, honestly, as disinterested as Haven. "Erza says next time it happens, she's going to ditch me in the middle of the city and make me find my own way home. She says it shouldn't be too hard, since she always sticks a map to her house in my pocket before I leave, but maps are super hard. I think I'm just not good with directions is all."

Evergreen frowned some at the boy and was probably going to make some sort of disparaging comment, but then Haven suddenly shoved up from the table in a loud huff and stomped off.

"What's her problem?" the woman of stone asked though she didn't move to follow or even call after her. She and Haven had an...interesting relationship, to say the least. Raising her drink to her lips, Evergreen took a sip, still only mildly interested in anything.

"I dunno," Marin remarked softly, watching after her sister. "I guess she didn't like Kai's story."

"No," the boy assured his friend with a shake of his head. "It couldn't have been that. It was very interesting."

Evergreen made a nose in the back of her throat before only saying, "Marginally."

Having left her aunt and sister behind, Haven marched across the bar floor to where her father sat with Freed at his side, the latter going over some paperwork while Laxus handled the mail.

"Go away, brat," he said before the girl could even speak. "I'm busy tryin' to pay bills. Don't got time for you."

"I'm here," Haven told him with a growl in her tone that about matched his, "to talk to you about guild business."

"As a member, eh?" He snorted then, still not even glancing at her. "Office hours are posted on my office door. Go check 'em, brat, 'cause they're not right now."

"Laxus-"

"Haven," he retorted in the same tone and she was seething now.

He was derailing her again. Belittling her. The nerve.

"I," she started again as Freed, finally, put his papers down and looked to her, "am gonna take a job."

"So? Seriously, Haven, are you attention deprived? Huh, brat?" He snorted again, her father did. "I'm busy. So-"

"Laxus." Freed gave him a look that time. "You can at least listen to her."

He got a look for that one, the rune mage did, but Mirajane wasn't around to make the dragon behave so someone had to at least attempt to. Still, it got the slayer to toss the bills on his hand down before looking down at his daughter, his face no longer so smug.

"What difference does it make, Haven?" he asked her, honestly, that time. "Go take a job. Why do you need to talk to me about it?"

"So I can go take a job?"

"Are you asking? For permission? Yeah, fine. Whatever."

"Any one? That I want?"

Finally, the man seemed to be catching on. He frowned at her a bit as he said, "No. Is that it? Why you came over here? You take one in the limits-"

"No. I want to take a real one."

"The ones you take are real ones!"

"They are not. They're dumb. I'm gonna go take one that I have to travel and stay over night somewhere and-"

"You are not."

"Yeah, I am, Laxus."

"I'm Master. I say no."

She was going to kick him then, in the leg. Freed could just tell. Though he wasn't as big a staple in Haven's life as Bickslow and Evergreen, given that they were involved with her actual aunt and uncle, he was around a lot. He knew her just as well as them.

"Haven," he said quickly in an attempt to stop what was about to happen. "Is there a job that you have in mind? On the board? Right now?"

He was the one derailing her then, Freed was, but his question did hold her up some as, yeah, she was probably going to kick Laxus with all her might and yell and scream at him.

"No," she said slowly, looking to the rune mage. "I don't."

"Why don't you go and find one then? Hmmm? And then return with it."

She felt as if he were being a bit tricky, Freed was, but she also wasn't too sure what his game would be. He was on Laxus' side, always, no matter what, of course, but at the same time, she could see no avenue in which her going to find a job would help her father more than her. Still, though Freed frequently seemed annoyed with her, he'd never outright attempted to undermine her, so Haven slowly did walk away.

At the very least, the action gave her a chance to calm down.

"She is not," the slayer growled at his most faithful follower, "going out of town on a damn job. Overnight? No. She's-"

"She's the age that we all were," Freed argued simply, "when we did far more."

"I don't care. Things are different now, then they were back then."

"How? Laxus?"

He wasn't sure. And it didn't matter. Instead, he only growled before replying, "We didn't have parents that gave shits when we were running around, doing whatever the fuck we wanted. I give a shit. I can't just drop everything and watch over her. To go get her if this all goes wrong. They're not like us, when we were kids. We were independent. These kids, the ones in this hall, they're not that way. I'm not going to let them go get themselves hurt or killed just to prove points."

"Laxus-"

"No, Freed. No. It's my daughter, my guild, my-"

"You have to let go eventually."

"She can go on serious jobs in a few more years. When-"

"You're being ridiculous."

"Do you have kids? Huh? That's what I thought." He huffed too, the slayer did, before adding, "You don't know, Freed. What it's like."

"You can't just let her play mage forever, Laxus. If you wish for her to be a real wizard, as you say you do, then-"

"Here."

Haven was back then, shoving a job at her father. He didn't take it.

"It's too," he told her simply, hardly even glancing at the request, "far."

"It is not!"

Haven's theatrics had finally attracted Laxus' true tamer and, rushing over, Mirajane frowned at the three of them.

"What's going on?" she asked as her daughter, once more, looked to be raring back to attack her father. "Laxus? Are you teasing Haven?"

"What? No. She's the one-"

"What's this?" And Mira moved to take the job then, from her daughter, glancing over it. "Who's taking this job?"

"No one," Laxus tried, but Haven was having none of it.

"I am," she said.

"No. You're not. You-"

"I have to! I can take jobs too." And this time, Haven stuck her tongue out at the man though, just as quickly, she was looking up at her mother. "Ravan can do whatever he wants. And Locke and Navi too! How's that fair? I'm way stronger than all of them and smarter and more responsible and just better. Why can't I go on jobs? I'll just go there and back!"

There were a lot of fallacies in her statements. A lot. Ones that both Freed and Laxus picked up on. But Mirajane only became stuck on a single thing she tossed out there. One that Mirajane had never considered before.

Erza's practical adopted son was venturing further and further into the path of her footsteps than Mirajane's full flesh and blood actual daughter.

This could not stand.

Haven had never had that before. Her mother in her corner. Or at least she'd never felt it. Mirajane definitely cared about her and she knew that, but she seemed many times to see her as an annoyance or a nuisance. At least that's how Haven felt. Everyone did. They all thought that she was annoying and a brat and they didn't want to deal with her. She was used to that meaning getting her way, when it came to others, but Mirajane seemed to be the only one that laid down the law with her oldest.

Not that day though.

No one in the hall had ever seen the little girl so happy. Ever. She was quite literally smiling and actually hugged her mother at the woman's words of agreement while Laxus had his turn then, of fuming and stomping off. Evergreen was finally coming over then, to Freed, to question what was going on, while Marin and Kai just stayed where they were, watching it all unfold.

"Wow," the boy whispered as Marin stayed silent. "Is your mom gonna be okay? I've never seen Haven hug a person before. Is that some kind of spell?"

But Marin kept quiet, even as her sister rushed back over to them then, knowing she had to hurry. Get out of Magnolia fast. If she didn't, Laxus might have a chance to overrule Mirajane and, while that didn't happen often, her mother siding with her was much more rare. No need to give lightning a chance to strike twice.

"Where," she asked Kai, "is your brother?"

"Why?" The boy was very cautious. "Are you gonna hug him too? Is this a trick?"

Just like that, her joy was snatched right out of her. Glaring, Haven repeated herself, this time in a much harsher tone.

"At Erza's," the little boy was quick to say. "I guess. But-"

"Are you going on a job?" Marin asked her sister slowly and Haven was glaring then, at the two of them, but she did nod.

"Yeah," she said simply. "On a real one. So I won't be home for a few days."

"Well… You should be careful," Marin offered up slowly. "If you're gonna go far."

She was expected a harsh response back from her sister, but Haven only turned, leaving them. She didn't have time to bother with the two of them. The babies. No. She had to go get the others. It was the one requirement Mirajane handed down to her.

She had to take the other kids.

This didn't bother Haven too much. She usually went out with them anyways.

Locke was the easiest person to convince. He'd seen the entire thing, anyways, over there with his father and mother. And Lily too. Haven only came over to glare at him and tell him to come on, or else he'd get left, and Locke looked to his parents, worried that his mother would make some sort of complaint, but they both nodded at him. Though Gajeel did caution him about one thing.

"Don't let that girl run you, huh?" he griped. "And don't get yourself into someone kind of situation? I don't wanna have to come get you."

He only nodded though before rushing off, because Haven seemed to be leaving him behind, and they went to collect Ravan next. He was very busy out in the backyard, training with Erza, and only glared when the pair came through the gate.

"What do you want?" He growled. "I'm bus- Erza!"

She'd caught him then, as he'd turn to stare at the other children, and rather than striking him with her sword, she'd kicked him to the ground where he only took to glaring up at her.

"You never take your eye off your opponent."

"We're only sparring!"

"My statement stands."

"We're going on a job, loser." Haven always found it best to just not mess with Erza. Ever. At all. Avoid her at all costs. She was probably the only person in the hall the little girl truly feared. "Are you coming or not?"

"No," he grumbled as he shoved up. "I'm busy. I-"

"It's in," Locke told him then, after having read over the flier himself, "Haiko."

"Haiko?" Erza was interested, finally, in the pair of them as she sent her dull training sword back to it's reequip space, just so she could cross her arms. "That is a long ways off. Your father knows about this, Haven? The Master?"

"He's the one who agreed to it," the blonde responded honestly. She knew better than to play tricks with the woman. "And my mother."

"Hn." Erza almost seemed pleased at the idea. Maybe. Then she kicked at Ravan. "Get up. You must join your friends on their journey."

"They're not," he growled, though he did get to his feet, "my friends."

Still, he left with them under the direction of the swordswoman and though he was still a bit pissed that she'd kicked him, he did nod his head when she handed down instructions to behave himself.

"You are representing the future of Fairy Tail," she informed the three children. "I expect you to carry yourselves in a a respectful manner. And remember, you either come back successful or not at all."

Even Freed would find that sentiment a bit harsh, but Erza was serious. She expected much out of the children. Ravan above all.

Navi was the last of the brood and she was, to the best the others knew, at home that day. They were a bit relieved, honestly, to find her there, saving them from having to search the town.

Her whole family was home, it seemed, from her mother and father to Happy to her two twin brothers. It was lunch time.

"A job?" Natsu seemed excited at the idea. "Sounds like a great idea."

"They're not asking you," Happy snickered.

The pair were at the table, scarfing down their meal, while Lucy stood in front of the two high chairs in the corner, trying to get the two little boys as interested in their meal as their father. Navi, who'd been eating as well, had jumped up to answer the door before, and now stood in the kitchen, leading her friends back there when they explained why they'd come.

"Can I go?" she asked her mother who frowned a bit at the idea.

"I dunno," she said slowly. "Haiko is kinda far and it's just the four of you..."

Unlike all the others, Lucy didn't have that sense of freedom young. She was alone, in a sprawling property that slowly felt like a prison. While she agreed, to an extent, that the kids needed to spread their wings to become true wizards, she had more practical, average parental parameters. Freedom was earned, sure, and Navi was typically a rather reserved child, but she was still that; a child. And freedom was far different from zero adult supervision.

"Mom." Navi was rare to argue with her, but if Lucy ruined this for her, she'd be mortified. "It's not that far."

"It's past Mt. Hakobe," the celestial mage pointed out. "And besides, what is this job? You guys will probably be gone-"

"Ah, Luce, let 'em go," Natsu insisted then, with a bit of a shrug. Glancing over the children, he said, "They gotta start somewhere. Navi's plenty ready for this."

"You don't even know what the job is," Lucy argued, but he only shrugged.

"I have faith in ya," he assured his daughter.

"I can go." Happy jumped off the table then, taking to the air just so he could go fly over to Navi and fall into her arms. "And watch out for the kids. If you guys want."

"We don't," Haven retorted as Navi only frowned down at the Exceed, though she held him closely still.

You gotta stay here, Hap," Natsu insisted. "Without Navi, you have to help out with chores."

"What?" Suddenly, the Exceed wasn't pleased with this new idea at all. "No way."

"Someone does need to take out the trash," Lucy sighed. "And me and Natsu are super busy with the twins right now-"

"Navi, you can't leave me here with them," Happy complained though, slowly, she was going to set him back down on the table. "This is torture! Unpaid labor."

"You live here for free," Lucy pointed out. To her daughter though, she only said, "You can Navi. Go with the others. But this is your one chance. If this doesn't go well-"

"It will." And she rushed then, first to hug her mother and then her father. "And I'll take out the trash. Before I go."

"Thank you," Happy said as she came to pat him on the head as well. "It's just not a fair chore for me."

"You make," Lucy griped, "most the trash, cat. It's literally all fish bones."

"Not all."

But most.

Still, Navi was happy to take out the trash and Natsu went down there with the kids, out of the apartment and to the street, to see them off.

"You'll do fine, Nav." He hugged her once more. Unlike the other kids, this didn't embarrass her in the slightest. Haven found her parents unnecessary and Ravan found Erza annoying, while Locke just didn't like to be teased, but Navi loved both her parents. Especially her father. No one could make her feel differently. "By this time next year, you'll probably be taking jobs like this all the time! Alone!"

But that thought depressed him a bit, because it meant without him, and Natsu only slid her some extra jewels, just for emergency sake, and then the children were off.

They were hardly to the train station before they had a fight and, for a good portion of the journey, Ravan wasn't even allowed to sit with them. Haven was that angry at him.

Still, eventually, the kids reconciled enough and they sat together as they looked over a map and discussed the job at hand.

The request read as follows:

_Assistance requested!_

_Under the guise of providing aid following a disaster, a dark guild has taken hold of our city. Any help in ridding our town of them will be greatly appreciated. _

"What's that even mean?" Locke asked with a frown. "What sorta disaster? And how did a dark guild-"

"You take help from anyone you can," Ravan snapped at him with a heavy frown, "when your town needs it. Idiot."

"I know that, but-"

"Are you guys sure that we can do this?" Navi, seeing the job for the first time, suddenly wasn't having fun anymore. In fact, she kinda wished her father or Happy was there. Or her mother. They'd know what to do when they go to the town. How to proceed. Have, Locke, and Ravan though… And her… What the heck did they know about anything. "I mean-"

"Of course we can." Haven turned her typical anger onto the Dragneel girl then. "If you don't think you can, then just ride the train back home, Navi. We'll do this with out you. I can do this without all of you. I-"

"How'd you even get Master to agree to this?" Locke asked then. "Haven? Why'd he say yes?'

"Why do you care?"

"I was just ask-"

"No more questions then." And she shoved the flier back into her pocket. "Just be quiet. And get ready. It'll be a long walk from the train station."

Ravan only snorted though, at the three of them, and took to staring out the window. He would never admit it, but he was nervous too. Erza told him that he had to go and complete this job. He had to. She hadn't been serious, he knew, about not coming back at all, but he didn't want her to think that he was weak. Or not capable. Because he was.

He'd prove it to her. Just like Haven would to her father.

* * *

**Five chapters. After this, we start the one-shots that start the more rapid age progression for the children before we get back to the bigger, more important stories to finish out the series. We're nowhere near done, guys, but we're definitely setting the stage soon. **


	2. Chapter 2

"This is malarkey."

Marin frowned, glancing at her friend, before questioning, "What's that mean?"

"I dunno," Kai admitted. "I heard Mr. Bickslow say it before. But I'm pretty sure this is that."

Erza, who at the moment was cooking the children breakfast, only shook her head. Given Haven was out of the house for a few days, it was all too easy for Mirajane to pawn her youngest off on Erza. Well, in theory. Erza had actually hoped to do the same, but Mira beat her to the punch, given they were up at the bar that day where the barmaid had ample time to implement the concept. Not that Mirajane would get much out of this, no doubt, as Laxus seemed rather pissed at her still over the whole thing.

Still, a childless house is a childless house.

The swordswoman wished she had been given the chance to experience the same.

"How is it unfair, Kai?" she asked as she came to set plates of breakfast before both children. "Your siblings have become proficient enough in their magic that they are able to take such jobs. You two, however, seem content in mediocrity. If not worse; disappointment. For you to be given the same opportunities while refusing to flourish would not be fair."

Kai, having listened to hardly any of the things that left the woman's mouth, only said, "It's unfair, Erza, 'cause I can't go."

Duh.

Marin only nodded.

"Then," the swordswoman remarked with a heavy look to both, "perhaps you should improve the situation yourselves. If you want to be mages, you must work for it. Nothing in this world is handed to you. At this rate, I will be making you breakfast and having this same conversation with you in a year. Two. Three. Ten. Do you want that?"

"Do we have to have grits each time?"

"Kai-"

"I's just askin'."

Still, she shook her head. "One day, both of you will be sorry that you squandered your abilities. This is the peak time to thrive. To grow. In your magic. Especially you, Marin."

And the little girl frowned some, looking away, just from the thought of the woman addressing her. It was rare, shockingly enough, for Erza to directly speak to her rather than just around her and Marin was very embarrassed.

"How come especially her?" Kai wasn't offended. Just curious. He agreed, anyways. Marin could be way stronger than him. He didn't care none. It just meant she could protect him when Ravan wasn't about (or when Ravan was who he required protection from). "Huh?"

"She is the child of not only two very powerful wizards," Erza continued though, thankfully, once more speaking around the child in question, "as well as possesses a powerful lacrima. One that any one, not just the children at the guild, but anyone would kill for. To be blessed, not once, but twice, and then to give it away, to let the chance slip through your fingers… Magical power is not a burden. Neither is immense power. They are gifts only bestowed on those seen fitting. They-"

"Except," Kai cut her off because, if you didn't, Erza would just talk forever, and he wasn't up for that, "for bad guys."

"I- what, Kai?"

"Bad guys get magic too," he insisted. "Don't they? They get powerful and magic and that's not a good thing? Is it?"

"Well, I suppose not," she agreed, at least somewhat. In the next breath she was shrugging and remarked, "Although, I suppose an argument could be made that there is no good without evil, to begin with, so at it's core, magic has no say in those sorts of things as, considering it is a concept rather than a living, breathing thing, and would have no understanding of such human determinations-"

"Then," Kai kept up, as well as he could anyways, "do you want us to learn magic so badly?"

He'd brought her back to her original point and, with a sharp look to both children, she only claimed her only seat at the table.

"Because I will not always be here to care for you. Nor able to. And there is no skill to fall back on better than magic." Still, she shrugged some. "Unless, of course, you have another dream you wish to share with me-"

"Nope." The little boy even shook his shaggy head. "None."

"Just," the woman sighed in response as Marin too seemed at a loss, "as I feared."

Still, the woman would be happy to find her more studious understudy had made it through the night, at least. In fact, it was he who got up early that morning, before dawn, and headed from the tiny camp the kids had made into town. There was a bakery only just opening and he purchased some biscuits.

He just so happened to get enough for everyone.

Happenstance, honestly.

Ravan was glad, anyways, to find the other still asleep when he got back. It gave him an excuse to go and kick each and everyone of them in the head. He was just about to finish off with Navi when the girl yelled, "I'm awake, I'm awake!" and bounced up, away from him. The gripes of Haven and Locke were enough of a warning, anyways.

The walk the rest of the way was done in mostly silence as all four of the children seemed to grow nervous at the prospects before them. Though they'd gone on plenty jobs together before, they were typically menial work, things that were beneath the more seasoned wizards in the hall. Starter jobs. And though they'd all gone on more serious adventures with both their respective adults as well as one another's. This was different though.

They were the ones in control. Whatever happened, or didn't happen, all weighed upon their shoulders. It was up to them and only them to make sure that this all went fine. And if it didn't, well, there was a good chance they wouldn't be allowed another opportunity at this sort of thing for a good number of months, if not a year.

They couldn't fail.

They wouldn't.

The place felt deserted when they arrived. There were gates surrounding the city, but they were open and baron. It was nowhere near as big as Magnolia, Haiko wasn't, but it was still a pretty lofty town, and they could tell people were home, at least, as they were watched from windows as they strolled through the streets.

"This place," Navi remarked softly as she stayed close to Locke, the atmosphere causing her more than a bit of unease, "is kinda creepy."

Ravan, annoyed, asked Haven, "Where are we supposed to go? Should we just go knock on a door and ask?"

"To the town hall, I guess," she said, but Locke only frowned.

"If the city is taken," he pointed out slowly, "wouldn't you think that's where they'd hole up? The people holding it captive? And wouldn't there be some sort of patrol? On the street? I mean-"

"Hey! You! You kids!"

And they all froze then (Navi even jumped a bit), as they found the source to be coming from a building they'd already passed, an apartment of sorts, from which a man stuck his head out of a window on the second floor.

"Yeah, you," growled the man. "Get in here!"

They were unsure of themselves, the kids were, but the natural authority of an adult addressing them more than lead them to head that way. The second they were close enough, the front door of the place was thrown open and they were drug in. As they tumbled to their feet after being grabbed, each child got into a fighting stance, glancing around at the adults that surrounded them in the entrance of the apartment building. But they didn't look like a gang of thugs. In fact, though it was two men who'd dragged them in there, women and children were down in the entrance way as well, all staring at them with wide, round eyes.

"Who are you?"

And that came from the man that had yelled at them originally, all four of their eyes following him as he rushed down the stairs to address the children.

"And why are you here?" he kept up. A stocky man that had to at least be Laxus' age (which made him ancient, truly), he seemed rather huffy and had an air of importance about him. "Have you not heard the news? This town is under seizure."

"We know." Haven is the one that relaxed first, finding her voice much easier than the others. "We're here to help."

"Help?"

"We filled your job. We're the wizards who've come to-"

"You?" The man's tone then changed, more to one of amusement and, though they all still seemed rather tense, some of the others around did give off something of laughs. "Your children! Surely, you are joking."

"Surely," Ravan growled, "not."

And each child barred their guild marking then. Locke's black one on his left shoulder, Navi's pink on her right, Ravan tugging at the neckline of his shirt, just enough to flash the red marking, and Haven, always the most complex in every situation, had to turn around and lift her shirt, just enough to show off the black ink in the center of her back.

"We're Fairy Tail wizards," Locke insisted and, given his age was just enough over the other children that, finally, he was edging towards puberty and therefore looked more suitable, there was much more belief in the eyes of the others then. "We've answered your job request. Now please, tell us what it is that's going on here."

"Children. Fucking children." He grew kind of agitated then, the man in charge seemed to be then, and only huffed. "Well, you might as well head on back. We don't need the help of the children. I'll write the other guilds again, the capital. Someone. We need serious help. So get out of here! Fucking children."

Locke and Navi looked to Haven, as always, but it was Ravan that spoke then, even snorting.

"Are you stupid?" he asked the man though he was looking around at all of them. "Huh? We just told you we're wizard. It doesn't matter how old we are. If you need help, you need us. I'm Erza Scarlet's student. And you laugh at me? Do you want to save your town or not?"

That got silence once more as the man before them seemed to consider this. The eyes of the other people gathered around fell to him and, with a long sigh, the man turned to head up the stairs.

"Come on then," he told them. "Come upstairs with me. We will speak there."

Haven was glaring at Ravan and as Locke and Navi rushed after the man, she only trailed after the other boy.

"You're Erza's little student now?"

"Shut up, Haven," Ravan growled under his breath at her. "Do you really wanna fight right now?"

No. And she didn't have time to, anyhow, as once they were upstairs, they were led right to a room off the hall.

Once the door was shut, the man addressed them.

"I, as you may have guessed," he began, walking slowly before the children, "am the Mayor of Haiko. Jamock, you can address me as. Formally a general in the King's royal army. I've always run my city the same as you would a ship. And yet, when in our time of need, does the capital come to me? Does it send aid? No. Just a letter informing us that, at best, we can hope for assistance in the coming months, but our best bet was to request it from..._wi__zard_ _gu__ilds_." The latter words were said with palpable disgust and the children only exchanged glances. But just as quickly, the man was continuing. "So I do it. I reach out to only the best. And what do they send me? Brats. Children. As if I do not have those in my own city. As if they somehow can save something which I-"

"What are you even talking about?" Haven, after having been one upped by Ravan downstairs, refused to allow him to take command once more. "Why are we here? What did you need assistance with? And how did a dark guild get involved?"

The mayor sighed then, stopping his pacing before the children, as he said, "There was a...sickness that spread, rather harshly, throughout our town. We were quarantined until it passed, but following that, there were many expenses in the city and not much through traffic, obviously. The burial costs alone, along with the orphaned and still too weak from their illness to work… We needed help. Again, the capital gave little aid, and I was fearful over our town's chance at bouncing back. Then a man showed up, at the city limits, and offered the assistance we needed. He had men that would help with the final cremations, burials. Jewels to get our soup kitchen through the next few months. Help us get back on our feet. It sounded too good to be true. All he wanted in return was housing for he and his men. But then..."

"So many of you are sick," Locke answered. "Or you were. And unable to fight back when the man, who I guess was part of a dark guild, brought his men in. They run your town now. Right?"

"Aye." He bowed his head then. "They have locked themselves inside my residential, governing building. There is a magical spell that forbids I and my men entry. I cannot cross a certain boundary, much less face the...thugs that they have residing in there. Please. If you are truly wizards, drive these men out of town and allow us to continue our attempt at survival."

"We'll do you one better." And Haven reached over to shove Locke forwards, towards the man, saying, "He knows some medical magic. He'll do what he can to take care of your sick. The rest of us will go and break through the barrier. Save your city."

He let out a long, slow breath then, the man did, before warning simply, "The man in there...his men… They are tricky. Proceed with caution."

Locke, not too keen on being left out, followed the other kids down the stairs and out the front door, grabbing Haven's arm as he frowned the second she was facing him.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "That I should stay behind? What if you need me."

"We won't."

"Haven-"

"You're the one always saying this is what you wanna do." And she jerked her arm free from his grip. It wasn't difficult. "To heal people. To save them. So you do that. We'll do the rest."

"You can join us, Locke," Navi assured him with a nod. "When you're done here."

But as he glanced around at the buildings that seemed to house many eyes, peeking out at them, he had a bad feeling that he wouldn't be free of his medic duties for a good while.

The mayor was in the doorway then and called out to them that they should find the residence in the center of town before setting a hand on Locke's shoulder, patting it stiffly before leading him back into the apartment building, no doubt to begin healing the wounded.

Haven, Ravan, and Navi felt a bit better then as, with a clear directive, their nerves were settling once more. Though the hard part was only just upon them, they were finally feeling like they belonged. They could do this. Whatever was waiting for them in the mayor's building was no more tough than dealing with the man himself. How could it be?

Laxus still had zero confidence, however, in his daughter and her friends as he mostly spent the day growling in his office as only Mirajane seemed brave enough to even address him. It wasn't like she too wasn't worried though. Or at least conscious of the danger. She'd feel much calmer when her oldest was back in her midst, fine, but she still knew that there was nothing worrying would do for them. Any of them.

The kids would come back, one way or another. She couldn't spend the next few days stressing about it.

"I'll take a juice. And one for Marin too."

Besides, she still had two other kids to fret over.

Kai seemed rather down though, as he slid some of his allowance across the bar to Mirajane, even sighing as his head fell to rest on the cool surface. Marin looked on mournfully.

"What's wrong, kids?" Mira asked, glancing between them. "Do you miss your siblings?"

"No," Kai said bluntly. It was true enough. Ravan and Haven had been butts, honestly, recently. "We don't."

"Then-"

"Kai's sad that they got to go on a cool, fun, job," Marin offered to her mother, "but we're stuck here. And then Erza scolded us for feelin' bad."

"I thought you don't wanna go on jobs?"

"We don't," Kai answered. "But we still can like the idea of it, can't we?"

Mira sighed again, as she glanced between them, before saying, "I'm sure if you stick around here long enough, something will come up to take your mind off it."

The kids weren't so sure, but they did appreciate the lunch she served them over their drinks. Still, as business picked up, the woman shooed them off, ordering them to go find something fun to do. Marin and Kai were just gonna go hang out in the pull where she'd use her magic to manipulate the water for their amusement (it wasn't hard to do, anyways, amuse the pair), but as they passed the table her aunt and uncle were seated out, the children of course had to stop and say high.

"I dunno, Elf," Lisanna was sighing. "It's just so weird, isn't it?"

"What is?" Kai asked, never one to learn boundaries of any sort. Adults, children, who cared? If they were talking around him, he had no problem butting right in. "Ms. Lissy?"

She frowned some at the two children, but still, Lisanna only shifted over some so they could both slide in beside her at the table.

"I was just telling your uncle," she remarked to the two kids, "that some things around the bar have gone missing recently. I've been pulling shifts for Mira in the mornings, but every time I open up, it feels like something else is missing."

"Like what?" Marin asked with a frown.

"Just little things," Lisanna said with a shrug. "I first noticed that some cleaning bottles were missing, when I opened up one morning, but when I went to ask Mirajane about them, they were back. But a little more used, I thought. It happened again the next night too. But not just cleaning supplies. I've noticed towels going missing and toilet paper. Never food or alcohol though, like you'd think. Sis has been so busy with other things that she doesn't pay much attention, I don't think, to stock on stuff that isn't food or whatever, but I can't help, but shake the feeling that-"

"We'll take it!"

"Take what?" Elfman, who'd seem to be hardly listening, frowned at the little boy. "What are you talking about?"

Kai only beamed up at Lisanna proudly. "Your request. To find out where the stuff is going. You don't even gotta pay us or nothin'. We'll do it for the experience."

"I didn't hear myself offering a job to begin with," Lisanna mused, but it was with a giggle. Kai liked her a lot. She was a lot like Mrs. Master. Kind and silly. He liked that. "Although, for you to do it for free-"

"Don't sound much like a job anyways," Elfman added. "So someone's stealing stuff around the place. Hire a security guard. Not these two."

"Hey!" Slamming a hand dramatically down on the table, Kai told Elfman, "From one man to a half man, you should be glad I'm trying to work. I wouldn't insult a job you were on."

"He makes a good point, Elf," Lisanna added with a nod of her head causing her older brother to only sigh and agree. "Everyone has to start somewhere."

But she couldn't stay around for ever, the youngest Strauss sibling couldn't, but before she left, she told the kids to speak to Marin's mother and Kinana, if they wanted to hear more about the missing stuff. After bidding her and Elf goodbye, the kids set out to do just that, Marin still a bit weary, but Kai with his head held high.

He, of course, was going to make sure to bring this up to Erza over dinner that night. He wasn't useless. He could pull his own weight.

Back in Haiko, the other children were attempting to do the same. They found the mayor's place easily enough. It stuck out a bit, even, given that there was some sort of force field dumb around it, transparent, yet tented a light purplish color, a magic circle adorning the top.

"How," Navi sighed in defeat, "are we supposed to get through this?"

No one was too sure. Haven had kind of hoped that it was some sort of rune magic that was keeping them out. Maybe then she could at least figure it out, given all the times she'd been banished by her father over to Freed's as punishment. He'd always insisted to her that it was an important, useful skill to have, but clearly, it was more important to know whatever kinda stupid magic they were confronted with at the moment.

Ravan, growing agitated, only growled some as he produced a weapon from his equip space before attacking the part of the dome in front of them, striking it with his sword with swift ferocity.

"Knock it off!" And Haven shot a ball of electricity at him then, just strong enough to knock him off balance and down on his butt. As he glared over, she didn't even spare him a glance. "You can't just waste your magic like that. We have no idea how many guys are in there. You can't just use it all up."

"You have a better idea?" he asked with a glare, but she still refused to look at him. Instead, she began to walk away, around the perimeter of the dome.

"Maybe," she said, more to Navi than the boy, "there's something around back."

It couldn't hurt, anyways.

Following the perimeter, of course, led them around the gate of the property and though the barrier still stood before them, they could now see the back entrance to the building. Navi only leaned against the barrier, pressing her face into it as she stared in.

"Hey!" she called to what seemed to be no one before them. "Is anyone in there? We're from Fairy Tail! If you're in there, you might as well let us in! You can't starve us out!"

None of the children expected much from this and, for a minute, they got nothing. In fact, they were about to head around back front when, suddenly, there appeared a man, coming out of the back of the building. They all froze, the three children did, as once more, they were tensing for a fight.

"You're from," he called out to them, "Fairy Tail? You said?"

"Yeah," Haven called back, yelling, really, as if fearful her voice wouldn't carry through the barrier. "We're Fairy Tail wizards. And we've come to take back this town."

He was rushing then, the thin, frail man was, across the wide yard and through the back gate, all the way to the barrier. A few feet from it, the kids could see him much better and, honestly, they were a bit confused.

He looked _nothing_ like the bandit they'd imagined.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," he practically sang as he held out his hands, a magic circle appearing, just for a moment, before the dome around them began to fade. "We got word yesterday of your imminent arrival, but we could have never dreamed you would arrive so quickly. Come, hurry."

"Wait a minute," Haven asked as the man only beckoned them, almost in a beg, to join him then, no doubt so he could put the barrier right back up. "What do you mean you summoned us?"

The man deflated some, confused, as he questioned, "Are you not the wizards who filled our request?"

"Your request?" Ravan refused to take steps forwards until he had his own question answered. "Who are me?"

He cocked their head at them in confusion, studying the children in puzzled silence. Then, with a frown, he informed them, "I am the Mayor of Haiko. Mayor Dulwit."


	3. Chapter 3

Natsu was rather down about it, Navi being gone and all, but Lucy and Happy convinced him that he simply needed to go out on a job himself, put his mind off it. He agreed, but only one that seemed to be short. He wanted to be there, after all, when she got home. Lucy was glad to find Lisanna home, having just finished her shift at the guild, and the woman easily agreed to watch the twins for them for a couple of hours (she, after all, had Ajax anyways), allowing the celestial mage to accompany her husband and the Exceed.

They decided to eat a quick meal at the guildhall before leaving though, which is what they were doing when they were approached by a very serious Marin and Kai.

"Salamander," the boy greeted with a nod. "Navi's mom. Happy."

Lucy frowned some, at the children, but Happy and Natsu, both pleased with their titles, only nodded in return at him.

"Did you need something?" she asked. "Navi's with your brother and sister. So-"

"On job," Kai agreed. "Like we are. Right now."

"Really?" Happy was pleased for the children. "Wow! Who hired you guys?"

"Aunt Lissy," Marin told them.

"Is somethin' botherin' her?" Natsu thought hard, trying to place the last time he spoke with Lisanna. "Why didn't she ask for my help?"

"Considering she pawned it off on them," Lucy remarked softly, "I doubt that it's that serious."

"It's plenty serious!" Kai didn't like the insinuation of otherwise. "There's a thief in our midst!"

"Really?" Lucy still seemed skeptical. "And Lisanna went to you?"

"We're mages too." He sounded whiny then. "And Marin's a dragon slayer! So she's super strong. Probably stronger than you, Navi's mom."

"I do have a name."

Everyone did. He just wasn't great with them.

"What does it have to do with us, anyways, huh?" Natsu finally truly addressed the children. Kai chalked it up to the slayer connection. Really, he was just tired of them ruining his meal. "We didn't steal anything."

"At least me and Natsu didn't," Happy agreed. "Navi's mom though, who knows about her?"

Lucy only ignored him though as she asked, "What was stolen? Marin?"

'Well, Aunt Lissy said her cleaning stuff went missing," Marin began slowly. 'And then Mommy said that she had noticed some bottles from behind the bar were gone. And towels that had been washed before, when she left the hall, were turning up used. And then Ms. Kinana said that she did feel like she could hear someone, sometimes, late a night when she was-"

"You don't have a thief." Then, truly, slayer to slayer, he informed Marin, "You have a ghost."

"A what?"

"Natsu," Lucy told him with a frown.

"I'm serious, Luce." He even nodded his head. "You kids got a ghost. On your first job. Imagine the luck!"

"Yeah!" Happy, who'd been standing on the table before, jumped into the air at the thought. "Mages and ghost hunters? You're going to have a huge resume!"

"There isn't a ghost," Lucy told the kids with a frown at her husband. Kai seemed rather excited at the idea, but Marin far more relieved at the celestial mage insisting this. "Ghosts aren't real."

"Ghost are very much so real," Happy insisted to the pair. "What would Navi's mom know?"

"About spirits?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Really, Happy?"

The cat only slowly fell back down to the table as his wings dissipated. To Kai and Marin, he said simply, "Good luck on your job. Maybe Lucy's right, maybe it's not ghosts." But he winked at that, because it definitely was, and wow, Kai was going to need to reevaluate this situation if this was all true.

Marin was going to have to reevaluate a lot more though, if it were. Like how hard it would be to back out of a job…

In Haiko, the children were deep in their own mystery as, though their guards were still up, when they were welcomed in by the new purported mayor of the city, they only agreed. He reenacted the barrier though, before leading them to the residence.

"Here," he said before allowing them entry, producing from his pocket some folded pieces of cloth. "You will want to wrap these around your faces. It is not a...pleasant scent that awaits you, passed this door."

It was already hitting them, honestly. Navi, after having lived with her father, an Exceed, and two little babies for so long didn't think she could ever be bothered by strong stenches, but gosh, she was wrong.

"What is it?" Haven asked as each child, without question, did as they were told. It could have been a trap, of course. Ether soaked, potion dipped, anything really. It wasn't, but it could have been. A learning curve. The cloths had been soaked in something though. Peppermint oil. No doubt to attempt to conceal the stench.

It did little to help.

"We've been trapped inside of this building for weeks," the man told her simply, "for fear of an attack."

"Yeah, well, try not stealing a city from people in need then," Ravan retorted. The situation was a bit hard to follow, but he was nearly certain that was what was going on. Maybe. "Then you won't get attacked."

"Steal a city? Who has stolen anything?" And the man wrapped a cloth around his face as well before they entered. "I am as I told you. The Mayor of Haiko. If anything, it is us who are under attack."

He was opening the door then, allowing the children their first glance inside. It wasn't pretty. The building seemed filled to the brim with people, some fit and fine, sure, but many were stretched out across blankets and mats, diseased and sickly as they coughed and hacked, buckets at the sides of many and the well scurrying around the room to tend to as many as possible.

"And these," he told the children with a soft, sad sigh, "are my poor citizens."

"What's happened to them?" Navi asked quietly though all three children hung back. Ravan most of all. He'd seen sickness wipe out a village, back in his days on the coast. Whatever was going around was not something he wished for. And when Haven took a step forwards, to follow the mayor deeper into the mansion, he only reached over and grabbed her arm, tugging her back. "What's really going on here?"

Noting the children's hesitance, the mayor turned back to look at them. "No one here is contagious any longer. Honest. The quarantine was quite effective in that regard. Once the fever dissipates, the body is merely left extremely weak and has a complex road back to what it once was."

Haven jerked away from Ravan then, taking that step forwards then. "This doesn't make any sense. If you're the one that requested our help-"

"I very much so have. You are Fairy Tail, are you not?"

"We are," she assured him. "But there was a man, in the city, who we met with. He told us that he was the mayor and that it was you who have trapped yourselves in here, refusing to vacate-"

"That man is not the mayor!" He huffed did, the assumed true one before them. "The men out there, they ran my people out of their homes, out of their businesses. After the capital refused our call for aid, they arrived, claiming to be a guild who could assist us. We were still under quarantine, but he insisted that he had mages who would solve all our ailments. What was I to do? Other than let them in. And now...now..."

"How do we know that you're the real mayor?" Ravan asked. Still, he hung near the entrance. "Huh? And not him?"

"Look around, boy." The man gestured to those laid about. "Who would fake this? And why?"

"Why," Navi found a question of her own, "would he want your town anyways? What's so special about this place? What would a dark guild even want-"

"I don't presume to know the minds of the evil and vindictive, child." Then he sighed. "Whatever it is that they wish for our city, surely it is misguided. There is nothing here to offer them. Not even protection, truly. I hope that you wizards are able to right this mess for us and drive these invaders out of our city."

The kids looked between themselves then. His story felt real to them, in that moment, but the one that they'd been given by the other man, back in the town, had felt equally as truthful. And yet…

"Locke." Haven had a sinking feeling. "We have to go check on Locke. We left him with the others. If they are not who they say they are-"

"You gotta drop the barrier, again," Navi told the mayor. "And quickly."

He only shook his head at them though. "Come closer. Show me your emblems, so I can be sure of you. Then I will add you as exceptions to my barrier and you can pass through it freely."

They did so once more, for the man they now recognized as the Mayor of Haiko, who in turn granted them the enchantment of freewill.

"Return," was his only command, "when you have secured our city."

But Haven didn't care about his stupid city any longer. No, she was far more concerned with the fact they very well might have just left Locke all alone with the enemy.

His father was worried over him as well, back home. Or at least wishing for him then Levy was making him sit there, listening as Erza's dumb brat and the Master's only slightly less dumb brat grilled him on his whereabouts the night before.

"We have a thief, Mr. Black Steel," Kai told him with an angry gaze. "Or a ghost. I'm not asking much. Just for a full history of where you were the day before. And you can't answer me! Everyone else knows where they were last night. But you. It's pretty suspicious, don't you think?"

"Look, you little brat-"

"I dunno, Gajeel," Pantherlily agreed as Levy, thoroughly enjoying the entire charade, only sat at the man's side, hiding a giggle into her palm. "The boy makes a point. It is suspicious."

"Why are you all houndin' me? Huh? And what authority do these kids even have over me anyways?" Huffing, the man looked Kai dead in the eyes as he said, "If you don't scram right now, I'll whack ya one. It would do you good, anyways. Little runt."

"This is a job handed down directly by guild staff," Kai threatened as Marin, seated on the side of the table with him, only threw her hands over her eyes, peeking through her fingers as she watched in sick anticipation. She didn't want Kai to get 'whacked' by Gajeel, but at the same time, it would at least be interesting to see. The suspense was killing her. "Mrs. Lissy and Mrs. Master both told me that this is my job to get to the bottom to. If you're not gonna cooperate, well, I might just have to-"

"Kai."

He froze too, at the sound of the only voice he feared.

"What are you doing?"

Erza was back, it seemed, coming to collect him no doubt. It was getting late and she'd probably just finished her final workout of the night.

He only grinned sheepishly though as she came to stand before the table.

"Are you bothering Gajeel and Levy?" she questioned as Marin still only peeked through her fingers at the swordswoman. "Instead of learning your magic?"

"I'm on a job, Erza."

"A job?"

"Lisanna thinks that someone's been stealing stuff, or something, around the guild," Levy explained for the boy with an easy grin. She was actually rather enjoying the kids. Sort of. Kai could always be a bit much and she usually found herself just feeling sad for Marin, but watching her husband get so worked up was always enjoyable. "So Kai and Marin are gonna get to the bottom of it for her and Mirajane."

"It can be a thief," Kai told the woman, "or a ghost. Or a mixture. But that's what I'm here to figure out."

"Well, I ain't either," Gajeel told the boy with a heavy glare. "So you better just start barking up another tree."

"I will not," the little boy went right back to his interrogation voice (it was quite scary, if Marin did say so herself), "until you have answered the questions. Don't make me go to Master with this."

"You can't," Mirajane sighed as she passed by with a tray of beers for a nearby table, "go to Master with this."

"Don't make me go to Mrs. Master with this," Kai revised. "And I dunno if you know this, but Marin here's a dragon slayer. That probably means she's stronger than you."

"I," Gajeel growled at him and oh, did he wish for his son then, his sensible, respectful son, "am a dragon slayer! And not one of those fakes, like your little friend here."

"You are?" Kai considered this new information. He'd been standing, practically, from his side of the table, and only sat back on his but then on the bench. "Well, from one slayer to a fake slayer, do you think you can pass the info off on Marin? That'll clear things right up and I can remove you from my list of suspects."

Gajeel was seething and Erza, with a roll of the eyes, move to grab the boy back of his collar and pull him out of his seat.

"Come," she ordered Marin. "It is time to go home."

"It's alright," Kai assured Marin as Erza none too lightly dropped him back down to the ground. "We'll finish our interrogations tomorrow."

Not to mention, it would give him a good chance to prepare for what he truly thought was at the root of all the problems. Ghost hunting had never been something he was called to do, but oh, he was going to throw his all at it in the morning.

The sunset was on the horizon in Haiko as well as the three children rushed down the empty streets, hoping to find their friend as quickly as possible. The whole situation was still a bit fuzzy for each child, but they knew there was a high chance they'd just fed poor Locke to the wolves.

All the eyes they'd felt on them before were absent then as no one peeked out at them from the building windows. The place had felt deserted before, but it was completely empty now. As they made it back to the building they'd previously been in, they found they could enter, but in vain. Locke and whoever that man were had long vacated, along with all those supposed townspeople.

"Haven," Navi whispered after they'd searched the apartment building top to bottom, calling out for their friend, eventually meeting back on the bottom floor in defeat. "What are we going to do?"

She didn't know. And she really didn't like how Ravan and Navi kept looking at her as if she should. But she couldn't tell them that. Laxus wouldn't say that, if he were there. He'd know what to do, honestly, probably, but even if he didn't, he'd still act as if he did. Obviously. Always.

So she had to pretend too. Even though she had no clue.

"We'll search the town," she told them. "Duh. It's not like they'd have gone far. If they're trying to keep those people trapped in the barrier, they wouldn't leave. They must be around here somewhere. Or close by. Or...or… They just have to be."

And they did. She knew it. Because whether they were the good guys or the bad guys, it made no sense that they would flee when there was so much going on at the moment. They were somewhere. Wtih Locke.

"We should split up," Haven told them outside.

"You should never," Ravan glared, "split up."

"We have to find Locke."

"I know that. But-"

"Then you go that way, I'll go this way, and Navi- Navi, wait!" Haven was mostly annoyed that she was going in the opposite direction than the one she'd planned to point the other girl in. Annoying. "Where are you going?"

But she didn't stop to explain and, with a growl, Haven rushed after her. Ravan, who never wished to split up in the first place, was glad to find an easy remedy. All three raced through streets now, zagging down different ones, attempting just stay in one another's eye sights. Haven was pissed too, as she finally caught Navi, the younger girl coming to a stop in front of a random building, nearing the gates around the city. It wasn't an apartment, like the one they'd been in previously, but rather seemed to be a shop of some kind. Or at least it was. Before the quarantine.

"He's in here," was all the pink haired girl said, but the other wasn't just going to take her on her word.

"How," Haven griped with a glare, "do you know that? Huh?"

And Navi blushed, just a bit, as she looked down to the ground, kicking at it. "It's a new magic I've been working on. Kind of. I wanna… I wanna be like my dad and be able to trail people too. Like their scent. But I can't. 'cause I'm not a slayer. But I...I… I've been working on a new spell. That he found for me. I can't track scent, but I can see a trail a person leaves behind, if I mark them first, with it. And I kinda sorta...well… I may have put one on you guys, since you're my friends, and I didn't wanna loose you or anything, while we were on our job."

Haven only blinked and considered the implications of developing this spell herself. Ravan, however, just felt violated.

"You marked me?" he growled at her. "You creep! What kind of freak does that?"

"She said," Haven retorted as, finally, she moved towards the door of the shop, "that she did it to her friends. So I imagine you're not marked."

Ravan shoved her, but Navi, still slightly embarrassed over this, only followed the pair, keeping quiet then. The building was unlocked, anyways, and as the trio entered, they all listened as well as they could, hoping to pick up on something. Anything. That would assist in assuring them that yeah, Lcoke was somewhere in there. He was their real target then, really. They hoped to find the guy they were looking for, but above all else, they just really wanted their friend back.

"His path goes into the backroom," Navi assured them as they walked through the tiny, deserted bakery shop. "And then- Look, there's stairs."

The basement.

There was no doubt that, at the very least, Locke was down there, but they all probably felt a slight fear then, or at least Ravan convinced himself they all did, at the thought of going down there. No foreseeable way out other than the exit. He'd watched enough horror flicks on Erza's movie lacrima to know that nothing good happened in basements and cellars.

Nothing.

"Stay up here," Haven told Navi before nodding at Ravan. "In case something goes wrong, run back to the barrier."

"I can go down there. I-"

"One of us has to stay," the older girl insisted. "And Ravan's such a baby, he'd probably just run right now."

"I would not, you stupid-"

"Come on then!" And there was a door that led down to the basement, which they'd opened, but everything beyond it was dark. Haven held up an arm, electricity flowing brightly through it, providing a convenient light along their way. "You hear that Locke? We're coming!"

Navi felt useless and silly as, apparently, a lookout of sorts, but at the same time was glad not to have to go down into the dank, dark place. It was certainly somewhere you sent Happy, not go yourself. Ravan wasn't too keen either, mostly because without a torch of some kind, he was relying on Haven to see. And he could hardly rely on the girl to do something other than be completely useless and dumb. It was her main functions, after all, being useless and dumb.

The air got colder as they descended down the rickety wooden steps and Ravan worried about what they would do, if they were coming upon an ambush, and had to race back up them. Especially if Haven ditched out on him. Then he'd be completely in the dark. He didn't mind it, the dark, he wasn't a baby. Had no fear of it. But trapped in the dark with a dark guild, well…

Erza wouldn't care none though, he reminded himself. At all. She never did. About anything. All she thought about was completing her mission. Full stop. She might be afraid sometimes, fine, maybe, and she might even worry. But she'd never failed. Not that he knew of. Not once. And he didn't want to either. No way. Whatever was at the base of the stairs, whatever waited him, well, it was all he could do to face it. To beat it. There was no other option.

It came in glimpses, the large basement beneath the building. Haven seemed to just wave her arm about, attempting to get good looks at what awaited them herself, spinning in a tight circle. There wasn't much to see. Just storage bins and the like. There was a door tough, no doubt leading to a freezer, and through the disjointed vision he was given in the darkness, Ravan rushed forwards to throw it right open.

"Locke!" Haven tripped over something in the darkness, but stumbled right on to the doorway, arm still alight, the electricity that jumped forth shocking Ravan a bit, who she'd fallen into, causing him to shove at her once more. She hardly cared. "Locke..."

"He's not dead," Ravan grumbled as, walking into the freezer, he went to kick at the unconscious boy on the ground. "Just all tied up."

"Stop kicking him."

"I'm trying to wake him- Hey! Don't fucking electrocute him to death!"

She didn't. But she did full him up with some lightening in, hoping to arouse him. It did little. And Ravan and Haven only considered their options with a few sighs.

"We can't just leave him here."

"Duh."

"I'm just saying, Ravan. I'm sure you want to."

"I mean, it's not like we can do much else with him, if we can't even wake him up."

He had a point. The basement seemed to be clear and it was only Locke, apparently, in that building. And he was getting so much bigger than the two of them. It would be no easy feat, getting him in the narrow stairs. Between the two of them certainly they could lift him, but the pathway back up was too slender…

"I'll grab his feet," Ravan offered, "and you grab his head."

But they had to do it in the darkness then, given Haven couldn't light the way without shocking the kid some more (and though she'd love the opportunity in normal times, she was afraid of overdoing it). They nearly dropped him more than once, and it was much more difficult, traveling up the staircase with him, but they had no choice. Navi was more than a bit shocked when they dropped the restrained Locke at her feet.

"What happened?" she asked with round eyes, but Haven only shrugged as Ravan got down on his knees, summoning a short blade which he used to cut the ropes binding the other boy. "Is he...okay?'

"I dunno," Haven said as, after untying the ropes around his body, he found that they weren't all there was. "Hey, what's that on his wrists?"

"Some sort of cuffs or something, I guess," Ravan remarked as, trying to cut at the thick pale substance did little. "It almost feels like...metal, maybe? But there's definitely something magical about it."

"Maybe it's what's keeping him passed out," Navi whispered and this sounded as good of a concept as any to the children.

Slowly, the three all sat down around Locke, the final light of day streaming through a single window. Ravan only reached into his pocket, producing the final two biscuits from the morning, wrapped in paper and a bit smooshed.

"Here." And he passed them off to Navi. "I'm not hungry."

"We're not," Haven griped at him, because she always had to be upset about something, "going to just eat them because we're girls and your a stupid boy and your pitying us."

Navi, who was already eating hers, only frowned. It was fine though, she reasoned as she only tried to pass the other off on Haven, because that wasn't why she was excepting. Regardless of Ravan's reasoning, hers was simply because she was hungry. She'd grown up in a home with two of the most ravenous, bottomless pits alive. You ate your food or someone else did.

End of story.

But Ravan had been hungry before. Whether it was back at home, in his village, or when he and Kai began their trek to Fairy Tail. He was the older brother, so if there was only enough for one, or even only enough for half of one, then Kai was always the half. Not eating for a day wasn't too big of a deal anyways, he felt, and was a bit annoyed that Haven was causing such an issue over it.

"Fine," was all he growled in response, snatching the last biscuit from Navi before setting it atop Locke's chest. "He can have it when he wakes up."

"So what are we going to do?" Navi finally ventured because that's what they were dancing around anyways, wasn't it? "We have Locke now, and that's good and all, but we still have to find the guy who locked him up. And all the other people. Where did they go? There were so many people-"

"My grandfather," Haven spoke up then, as if a bit uncertain, "can make it seem like there's other people, other things, happening around you. When they're not. Ivan. Laxus' father. Remember, Navi?"

Faintly. It felt like so long ago, in the eyes of a child, the passage of only a few years. Though she was not the biggest fan of Ravan nor his little brother, it was impossible, really, to consider a life at the guild without the two of them. To think of Erza as all alone in her home. Childhood felt so short and yet so infinite at the same time.

"Maybe," the Dreyar girl went on after Navi's nod, "it's kind of like that. Because there's no way that that many people are in a dark guild. Women and children and… And… We shouldn't have left Locke all alone with him. That was so stupid. I'm so stupid."

And she was pouting then, Haven was, while, uncomfortable, the other children looked away. Navi thought she should mention that, well, it wasn't like they knew they were leaving him with an enemy. Rather, they'd left him there under the assumption he was going to be helping the sickly. Though Haven had been the one to direct him to stay behind, in no way was that the wrong move, considering what they'd been told. It was only a poor choice in retrospect.

But Navi didn't know how to say all that. She rarely had to comfort Haven. The girl typically was more on the offensive than defensive. She didn't even think Haven would like it, if she did comfort her. She'd probably see it more as Navi mocking her.

Haven always thought that people were mocking her. The girl was born with a constant chip on her shoulder, it seemed.

"Are you just gonna sit around feeling sorry for yourself?" Ravan finally grumbled to her. "So you got your stupid friend hurt. Who cares? We're here for a reason, you know. A real reason. We have to find where all those guys went, from before. Maybe you're right and there's was some kind of spell that made people appear. Fine. We still know at least one person was real. That mayor, probably, but even if it wasn't him, then someone. Someone did this to Locke. Why?"

Haven was still glowering, but Navi only looked curiously down at the passed out boy.

"And then to just leave him," the younger girl remarked. "Like...like they didn't care to have him or keep him. Just to get him out of the way."

Huffing rather loudly, Ravan jumped to his feet then. "I guess we should at least take him back to the barrier. Where he can be protected. If he wakes up and gets out of his cuffs, then-"

"No."

"Haven-"

"We left him before and that's how he got all injured," she insisted. "So wherever we go, he has to go."

Which poor Locke probably would have detested the idea of as all the children agreed carrying his heavy lug around was not going to work out to well for them. So, instead, Ravan grabbed one foot and Haven grabbed another, dragging him along behind them. Haven especially liked this idea, as it punished Locke for getting them in this mess in the first place.

She was quickly forgetting her role in the entire thing.

Yes, felt like it was completely Locke's fault.

Of course.

"So," Ravan began, glancing over at where Navi mostly seemed concerned they were doing moire harm than good to poor Locke. "I'm guessing you didn't put a tracker thing on the mayor? The fake one?"

"Well, no-"

"Good going, Navi," Haven added on. "How are we going to find him now?"

"I didn't think I needed to."

"Well," Ravan agreed with Haven, "you were wrong."

Without Locke there to stick up for her, all Navi could do was kick at the ground as they walked through the empty street, the rising moon providing them light then.

"We need to think about," Haven took command once more, "what's going on. Really going on. We know that there was definitely a sickness and it hurt the people of the town. They went into a quarantine. But once the disease had finished spreading, they found the capital wouldn't seen them aid to rebuild. So a dark guild offered them help and then stabbed them in the back. They holed up under the barrier and the dark guild has been here ever since. But why? Why would they do that? What do they want? And what's this sickness anyways? No other city around here experienced its spread? At all? That doesn't make sense."

"I guess what I don't get is," Ravan complained as he glared back at Locke. Dragging him around was getting annoying… "How come they tricked us in the first place? The dark guild? What was their ploy? Why interact with us at all?"

"I guess to feel us out, maybe," Navi whispered.

"But they sent us right to the enemy. Or at least their enemy," Ravan insisted. "Why would they do that? They had to know that we'd know they were liars then. What good did that do? What good is any of this? Ugh! It's hopeless. None of it makes any sense."

"I bet Locke could figure it out," Navi whispered. "Like one of his puzzles."

"Puzzles," Ravan retorted, "make sense. None of this makes sense. That's what I just-"

"How did they know that we wouldn't get sick?" Haven asked, ignoring the others mostly. "The quarantine is past, right? Why? Who deemed it that? Who took them off it? If the capital or their local government is just leaving them to fend for themselves? Was there a quarantine at all?"

"If a bunch of people," Ravan turned his annoyance onto her, "all got sick, then yeah, they probably can just section themselves offs by themselves. That's a quarantine, ain't it?"

"So they just gathered all the people up in their town, moved them to the mayor's mansion, and then what? All planned to die together? No. And not all of them got sick. They must have been the ones to care for the others. But why didn't they get sick?"

"Not everyone catches sickness," Navi pointed out. "And he said that once the fever passes, you're in the clear."

"Still. If they were smart enough to quarantine themselves, then how did it get so bad? How long must this have all been going on for, for them to need assistance from a guild? Just to get back on their feet?" Haven shook her head. "I just feel like someone's lied to us."

"Someone did lie to us," Ravan pointed out. "That first, fake mayor. He lied to us."

Still. She felt like there was more to it. A lot more.

After traveling aimlessly around the city for a good while, they figured they'd make something of a camp. Or at least they got tired of dragging poor Locke around. So they stopped, there in the street, just sitting on the curb, all three defeated and lost.

"This has to be the most boring job ever," Navi told the others. "Dad wouldda just beat the crap outta someone, until they figured out what was going on. Or my mom could have figured the whole thing out."

Ravan spit in the gravel on the ground, just staring at it. "Erza would've never fallen for the fake mayor anyways. She's too smart for that. She'd probably already be home by now, getting ready for her night training."

But Haven didn't speak on her mother and father. Because she didn't care to. Her mother was super powerful, fine, but she was also super stupid. And dumb. And trusting. She'd never figure out what was going on, Haven was sure. And her dumb father didn't even take jobs. Not since she was a baby. What good would it be to have him out on one? Sure, he was super strong and great and all that, but at the same time, he was pretty no nonsense. She doubted he could even be an effective mage anymore.

Guild masters were just old, boring losers who liked to harp on the fun, young mages.

She didn't like it though, thinking of them. Especially Laxus. He was definitely going to rip her a new one if she didn't figure this job out soon and head back home. Back home. Where she could go to bed and not be stressed about anything and...and…

She drifted off, just a bit, her head in her hands, and it wasn't restful in anyway, but it did shock her a bit when, suddenly, Ravan jumped up and yelled.

"We have," he told the others suddenly, "to get back to the barrier. And fast."

"Why?" Navi had been busy pushing little stones in the gravel road into a pile, but stopped at his words. "What good will that do us?'

"Think about it," Ravan insisted. "If it's like Haven says and someone in the dark guild can just...make people...puppets...whatever, then what if they made some that look like us? That would trick the people at the barrier, right? And they might let us in? And then they could get...whatever it is that they want from the people of this town. I dunno. But I do know that if they got in there, with the others, it won't be good."

But when Haven, through yawns, went to grab one of Locke's feet and Ravan the other, Navi finally spoke up and offered, instead, to help them carry him.

"Since it's not too far," she added when the other two seemed opposed. And, well, they didn't completely hate the idea.

It was as much as of a mad dash for the barrier as you could have, really, when you were lugging around an unconscious body.

"Oh, great," Ravan remarked when they made it to it to find, of course, exactly what he'd fear going on. "Just what we need. Two Havens."

Perish the thought.

She dropped the leg she was holding then, Haven did, at the sight of another her, there, banging on the barrier, requesting entrance. The other mayor, the real mayor, was on the other side, weary and seemingly confused.

"Hey!" she yelled as, now with a disproportionate amount of weight on their hands, Ravan and Navi dropped Locke as carefully as they could. "You stupid faker! Don't let her in! I'm the only real Haven!"

"She's definitely the loudest," Ravan grumbled as Navi only checked to be sure Locke was, at the very least, still breathing.

But Haven was too concerned with the fact that someone was sullying her good (debatable) name. Mimicry type magic, as well as Takeover, might not be her specialty, but given her lineage, she knew it well. And nothing annoyed her more than the idea of someone pretending to be her.

It was so rude.

And, not one to stand for being disrespected (it helped now that she wasn't going up against a full grown man, but rather, another child, herself, even if just in appearance), she had no problem with allowing massive amounts of lightning to begin jumping from her body. Running full blast at the other her, she tackled the doppleganger to the ground before raring back to slam a fist full of electricity to her face. And man, yeah, she did get it. Why everyone always wanted to hit her. Her face was rather punch-able.

"What," they heard exclaimed from inside the barrier, "is going on?'

"It's okay," Navi assured the real mayor. "We're taking care of it."

Ravan had never been given a clear shot to slice Haven up, no consequences and, well, summoning his favorite sword, one Erza had rewarded him with once, he came running right over to do that.

"You foolish brats!"

And Haven was shoved off, finally, by herself, but the other version was changing, anyhow, into something else. Something different. And as she stared in shock, the other her was turned promptly into the fake mayor from before.

"Why," he continued on as, getting to his feet, he only glared at them, "are you so annoying? And I see you found your little friend."

Ravan, who came to a stop by the staggering Haven, only held his sword cross his body, studying the older man. "Yeah, we did. I dunno what you did to him, but-"

"You better wake him up!" Haven added as, to her feet once more, she only ran at the man once more.

Okay, so many it wasn't the fact her enemy was a child that she was so willing to attack. Rather, she was always willing. No matter what. To her own detriment or not. She was a Dreyar and that meant, obviously, she was better than everyone else. Out right. Add in a bit of Strauss and, well, forget Raijin, who needed gods when you were the embodiment of all power ever. All fearlessness. All strength.

If Laxus was deluded, Haven was so far gone, she was almost a lost cause.

Almost.

"Haven," Navi warned, but softly as, suddenly, she felt it. The eyes. All about them. Turning, she saw them then, other men waiting around, in the shadows of the streets that led to the one they were on. "Uh, Ravan-"

"Huh?" He glanced around then, at the approaching foes, no doubt somehow affiliate with the fake mayor, and while he knew that some of the people from before, that they'd seen peeking out from buildings and such, had just been facades, these guys were definitely real. He could feel the magic radiating from them. Growling, he only shouted over to the quarreling Haven, "Navi and I got these guys. You take care of him."

"As if," she growled as the man, having evaded her wild punch, kicked then, a heavy boot into the young girl's stomach, which sent her flying backwards, "I needed your direction."

She and the man eyed one another, separated now a bit. As she heard Navi call out the name of spells and Ravan made all his stupid loud noises he did when he was swinging his heavy weapons about, she could only sneer at her foe.

"You're some kind of dark guild wizard, huh?" she questioned. "And you tricked us, right? Just to use us to get into the barrier? Well too bad! We're not just some dumb kids, you know. We're Fairy Tail wizards! And that means something."

Something, fine, but she wasn't too sure what yet. At the very least, she got the boastful, pigheadedness of the other members down pat.

Arrogance was earned, but after spending all those years watching the blowhards up at the guild, Haven felt as if she'd more than paid her dues.

He only sneered right back at her though, the stocky man did, as he said simply, "I did not lie to you, child. I once, truly, was a general in the royal army. And yet you think that you somehow will be able to defeat me in battle? How is that? Hmm?"

She didn't want to think about it.

"How could someone that works for the King," she asked with a heavy frown, "turn out to be a bad guy? How could you do that? How could you spend so much time saving people and now decide to hurt people?"

"Hurt people?" He snorted that time. "Have you asked yourself, kid, why exactly you think the people of this town are so innocent? Huh? Is it because they requested your help? That makes them trustworthy? You're kidding yourself. You think I just happened upon this shit place and decided to take it? Ha. They have something and I want it. And I'm going to take it!"

"If it belongs to them," she growled as, once more charged up and ready to continue on with her attack, "then it doesn't matter what it is. I won't let you have it!"

He wouldn't hit her though. Only evade her. Somehow, that was much more annoying to the little girl. Frustrating. Laxus got like this sometimes. He'd just eat her lightning. It only would serve to piss the little girl off.

"Why," she growled at him, "won't you just attack me?"

It happened then, right after her words, when she was so close to connecting a punch, but barely missing, and she wouldn't have, anyways, if the man hadn't had to use some sort of defensive spell that, when Haven connected with the little white ball that he shot from his hand. It threw her back, causing her to tumble a bit from the force.

It was as she hit the ground though that, from behind her, she heard softly, "Where are we?"

"Locke!" She couldn't help it either, at the sound of his voice, as she turned to glance over to him. The boy was trying to sit up then, struggling a bit when he found that his hands were still restricted by the cuffs.

"Wha- What's going on?" he asked in mostly shock. "Wha- Haven?"

But she didn't go over to him. Only frowned some, glancing from him to the man. He was throwing her off some, given the fact she still hadn't landed a clean blow on him, but something clicked in her head then and, as if she needed any help with it, Haven felt back on top.

"I get it now," she accused loudly. "You're almost out of magic, aren't you?"

The man only glared. "What are you talking about?"

"You're the one that did the big trick before, didn't you? Making it look like there were all those people in the buildings and things? Then you overpowered Locke, you used some sort of spell to knock him out, you did a terrible rendition of me, and now, when you just tried to block my attack, your spell on Locke wore off, didn't it? Because you've exerted yourself, haven't you?' Haven couldn't help it. She smiled in victory though there was still much to be done in front of them. "If that's true, then you might as well give up. You hear me? Because you might be out of power, but I haven't even gotten started! I-"

"Wow, Haven," Locke snickered as she stopped talking as her growling stomach kind of deflated her some. "Skip dinner?"

"Shut up! And work on getting out of those stupid cuffs, idiot. Because you're not getting any of the reward, considering you haven't done anything!"

"That's not fair!"

"Yes, it is, Locke. You're the one that got caught. That's your fualt. Not mine. You're the one that decided to sleep the whole day. I'm gonna tell you're dad that you were just lazy the whole time."

"You better not!"

"I am!"

"Then I'll tell Master about how you were cursing, before, when we were in the forest and Ravan threw that spider at you."

"I can curse! If I want! We're on a job! Mages can do whatever they want!"

"Tell it to Master."

"Locke, you- Hey!"

And she'd gotten so distracted, arguing with the boy (she'd gone the whole day without doing it; so it went without saying that given the opportunity, she took it without question), that she didn't notice the man approaching her. Snatching her up, he held her high in the air, by the back of her collar, danging her above the ground.

"Hey!" Haven complained. "Put me-"

"I don't need magic, brat, to destroy you," the man said simply. "Did you miss what I said before? I'm a former general. You think that some stupid little girl is a concern for me?"

"What are you gonna do? Order her around to death?"

Both Locke and Haven glanced up then as, finished it seemed with their respective duties, Navi and Ravan stood together, glaring at the man. It was the boy that spoke, of course, and from his reequip space he'd produced the one thing that Erza gave him and yet never rightly let him experiment with. Well, Erza wasn't there then, was she?

"You almost skewered me!" Haven yelled as, when the boy hurled the sharpened javelin straight towards her. The man had the wherewithal to drop the girl and jump out of the way. "Who were you aiming for?"

Well, it wasn't like Ravan to let an opportunity to pass him by, was it?

"Locke!" Navi rushed to the boy's side. "You're awake."

"Yeah," he said with a nod. "But I have the worst headache-"

"Haven's right though," Ravan insisted as, not too disappointed in his javelin missing whoever it was he was actually aiming for (he'd probably have gotten in big trouble, anyways, returning home with her slung over his spear, like caribou; but what a visual…) "You're all outta magic. And we're all revved up on ours. So are you gonna just surrender? Or do we gotta kick your butt first?"

"I vote," Locke growled as he still struggled with his cuffs, "to kick his butt."

Navi, being sure of Locke then, only got to her feet, fists blazing as she nodded at Ravan before the pair ran forwards to aid on Haven. It had been simple for him, dodging Haven's uncoordinated attacks, but between the three children, he was easily subdued and eventually, after avoiding a ball of flame from Navi and being caught off guard by a lightning strike from Haven, Ravan had enough of a distraction to shove the man to the ground before standing, victoriously now, truly, over him, sword pointed at his neck.

"This is preposterous!" The man almost shoved up, but Ravan did look ready to skewer his neck if he tried. "I am a general in the royal-"

"I thought," Haven snickered along with the other children, "you said former?"

"Can one of you guys get the key? Or something?" Locke complained from where he'd finally gotten to his feet, but still with his wrists locked before him. "Or something?"

"If we have to," Haven sighed as Navi, with Ravan still holding the sharp point at the man's neck, began to search the fake mayor's pockets for something to release him. But as they worked on that, the oldest Dreyar did feel her eyes drift, over to the barrier, where the true mayor still stood, having watched the entire thing go down.

He looked pleased with the children and Haven wanted to be pleased with herself, but something still bothered her. Though she was certain they'd rid the city of one plight, she had a bad feeling, beyond the barrier, they were hiding another.


	4. Chapter 4

Laxus woke up in the same bad mood he'd gone to bed in for the past few nights. Haven still wasn't back, hadn't gotten in contact, and Mira said that he was worrying about nothing, but he couldn't help it. How could he? His baby was out there with what? Three other idiotic children that still relied on their parents for dumb things like financial support and emotional support and other things that, yeah, kids that age usually did need their parents for, but not him. Na-ah. Not when he was their age. Which is why he was able to do it. Go out on jobs then. Become a mage thing. But they were still just babies. His baby was out there with other babies hoping to accomplish adult tasks.

Anything could happen to them. Even things unrelated to the job. They could be accosted by some sort of traveling, deranged pack of vagabonds. Vagabonds. They could get lost. They could get in a fight (they definitely would get in a fight) with one another and then split up and never find one another again. Or the guild. Or what if they got sick? Like not catching a cold or the flu, but were poisoned? He was poisoned, once, on the way home from a job, and nearly died. Nearly didn't make it back to Haven.

What then?

Huh?

He shouldn't have let her go.

"Kids are easily distracted," Freed pointed out to him that day, up at the guildhall, where the slayer was pouting. "By many things. Why, I recall once, when I was young, becoming enamored with this beautiful ravine in the middle of nowhere that I just had to stop and camp in. Take in the sounds and sights and nature. It was perfect for reading-"

"What if they got hit," Laxus whispered softly to himself, "by a train?"

"W-What?"

"Kids do dumb shit like that. Walk on tracks. Walk through tunnels with tracks."

"I do not think this is the case, but if you would like, I can scan the paper for any mention of fatalities in the region-"

"Or what if they froze to death?"

"It was not cold out. At any point. These past few days."

"Or ate some sort of root, out of hunger, because I didn't even give Haven any extra jewels and they ate something they shouldn't have and they were poisoned not because of fate, but because I didn't think to-"

"Dragon."

Mirajane was coming by with his breakfast then.

"You have," she said simply as she poured him a mug of coffee as well, "to calm down."

But he couldn't.

He was very busy, anyways, stressing about all the horrible things that could befall his daughter (and yeah, the other kids too, maybe) when his youngest came in, accompanied by Erza and Kai.

"Hi, Daddy," she said, coming over to press a kiss to his cheek. It was easy that day, given he was laying with his head against the table. "Good morning."

He grumbled something in response and, though this worried the girl, Kai was unconcerned.

"I'm glad you're here, Freed," the little boy said as, with no fear, he clambered up to sit next to the man. "There's much to discuss. I don't know if you noticed, given my breath, but I had coffee this morning. Because I'm a working, growing mage now who is gonna get to the bottom of my new job if it kills me."

Freed frowned while Laxus only muttered against the table, "Someone make him stop talking."

"Why," the rune mage questioned instead, "did Erza give you coffee?"

"'cause I asked for it," he said with a nod of his head. "She said if I'm man enough to drink it though, then I'm man enough to drink it black as night. So I only had a sip. It was pretty gross. But I'm pretty sure that it's taken it's affect."

"Yes, well-"

"Can you tell us where you were, Freed?" Marin asked as she moved to sit beside the man. "It's very important. Since, well, since when, Kai?"

"Forever," the little boy answered, suspicion taking over his tone then.

"Faithfully serving by the side of Laxus," the man answered easily.

"And you? Master?" Kai looked to Laxus then. "Have you been stealing stuff? From Mrs. Master?"

"Go away," was the best the dragon slayer could offer up. "Kid. Before I make you."

It was just as well. Kai had already made up his mind about what exactly was going on in the hall. And as he and Marin stood up, heading then over to the table her uncle and aunt were at. Evergreen was griping about something as Elfman looked on with a blank, tired stare, but neither of the kids seemed to notice as they sat right down, Kai with determination on his mind.

"I," he began, not caring that the adults were hardly paying him any mind, "interviewed everyone at the hall."

"You're such an idiot, Elfman," Ever was continuing right on. "You know what?"

"I don't know anything!"

"I agree."

"You-"

"And," Kai kept up, "have cleared them all. I don't think nobody was takin' stuff. At least no one I interviewed. Which was everyone! Well, mostly… But I think that I can say that it's pretty obvious it's a ghost. No doubt about it."

"What?" Elfman finally acknowledged the children, frowning over at them. "What did you just say, Kai?"

"There's a ghost here," he told them simply. "And me and Marin are gonna catch it! Then, well, we won't get a reward or nothing, I don't guess, 'cause we told Mrs. Lissy that we didn't want one, but we'll be able to shove it in the older kids' faces. They might finish their job, fine, but we're going to catch a ghost! What's better than that?"

"A ghost, huh?" Elfman said slowly as Evergreen only sighed a bit, absently filing her nails now. She'd tortured Elfman enough...for the morning. "What makes you say that?"

"Stuff missing, then appearing. Hearing voices when no one is around. Salamander basically told us it was one." Those were three indisputable reasons as far as Kai went. "It's definitely a ghost."

"But how do we catch a ghost?" Marin asked and oh, Kai was so glad she had.

"I sat up all night thinkin' about it," he told her. "First thing we need is proof. Then a trap. And then, once we have him trapped, we'll throw a bible or somethin' at him and that'll make him leave, I'm pretty sure."

Sounded like a great plan to her.

"How will you trap him though?" Elfman asked. "Or even find him? The guild is a pretty big place, ya know. And do ghosts even come out during the day?"

"Do ghost even- Elfman." Evergreen huffed at him. "Honestly?"

Honestly.

"I figure peak ghost huntin' hours will be late at night," Kai agreed with a bit of a sigh. "But I dunno how we're gonna get him then. Erza makes me be home by sundown, or else I might get even more lost than I usually am."

"That is a problem," Elfman agreed. "But I'm sure once Erza hears it's for a job-"

"Oh, Elfman, just offer to walk him home." Evergreen frowned at her boyfriend before over at the children. "I would, but I don't really care that much."

It made sense.

"Actually," Elfman said then, immediately receptive (and then some) to the idea, "if we're gonna catch a ghost, we'll probably need to be here after hours. I'm sure Laxus and big sis will agree, once they hear it's for a worthy cause."

"I'll ask!" Marin was energized at the idea (the concepts of ghosts was kinda scary though…) causing both her and the little boy to bounce up, off to go bug her parents. Evergreen though only eyed her boyfriend with a bit of suspicion.

"You really think," she asked slowly, "that there's a ghost?"

"I dunno."

'Elfman-"

"There could be."

"You cannot be serious."

"Why can't I? Huh?" He held his head up higher. "Besides, no man crushes the dreams of children."

"Have fun sleeping on the hard floor for the night."

It beat being kicked to the couch. At least at the guild overnight, he would start on the floor.

Haiko was only just arising for the day ahead. The night before had been a bit celebratory, at least to the amount a quarantined town could give. Haven didn't speak on her fears to the other children and, as the true mayor merely had someone go get the patrol from a nearby town to deal with the now felled dark guild, he invited the children to stay the night in the upstairs of his mansion, away from the sick and yet better than a night on the road could offer them.

"And we don't have much," he went on, "but we will gladly share our rations with you."

It was hard for any of the children to refuse.

They ate together, giggling and ecstatic over the idea that they'd completed their job. Only after they finished did they wrap cloths over their mouths once more, thankful for the reprieve of the stench. It was late, very late, but Ravan wanted to ditch out on them, honestly, and rush right back home to Erza. To tell her. Tell her about how he'd been the one to defeat the final guy and how he was practically the savior of the whole thing. Practically. And though she was tired, Navi couldn't help but wanna get back to her father and mother, to tell them all about how well her tracking spell had worked out. It practically saved the day. Or at least Locke. And Locke, well, his father would be awful proud of him, probably, when he left out the part where he was knocked out for most of the time.

Haven wasn't nearly as cheerful as the others, but they only chalked that up to her being as she always was. Hardly cheerful.

Before they all conked out, Locke described to them all he'd gone through, while they were separated.

"Well," the oldest boy began slowly as they children sat around in a guest room of the place. It only had two beds and, just to avoid the inevitable kicking match that would result should Ravan and Haven reside together, they paired up in order to keep that from occurring. Navi thought Ravan was kinda gross and would rather share a bed with Haven, but Locke thought that Ravan was even grosser and only quickly jumped to claim the bed with Haven. "It started when you guys first left."

He'd been prepared, after all, for healing, and though he was really stoked that this part of his skill set was going to be utilized, He kind of wanted to hurry and get things over with so that he could get back to the others. It sounded like they were headed towards a big battle and he wasn't too keen on it, fighting around the hall with Haven and Ravan (though he did it, quite frequently, with little abandon), but he didn't like the idea of leaving his friends at their most vulnerable. Not when he could provide some great power himself.

Though not for the same reasons his father held, he was beginning to wonder if the way of a medic wasn't for him.

So, he didn't hope to, like, inadequately heal those he was assigned to (if you could consider stupid Haven as someone wielding such authority; he didn't), but he did wanna rush a bit, through it, in hopes that his magic would still be viable when he reunited with his friends.

But it was when he went over to the first truly ill person he saw, there, in the building that it happened. It was a young child that he went to lean over and, as he was holding his hands out to begin his spell, he noted the way that her eyes were just...void. Like they weren't…there. Really there. He didn't even detect, really, any sort of warmth or the typical sensations you get, from being around another human. It was truly...odd.

When he glanced back though, at Mayor Dulwit, to ask him what exactly was going on, it was to find the man much closer than he had in moments before and, with a sharp stroke to the top of Locke's noggin, he seemed to think he'd knock the boy out.

But no, not quite. That had been, after all, the entire relationship between the boy and his father since he was old enough to toddle around. Honestly, his strike didn't feel like much, though it did make Locke reach up and rub at the top of his head.

"What," he complained, "are you doing?"

Dulwit only glared. Though Locke didn't know it, and therefore didn't have the ability to inform the other children about it, as they sat around, listening to him tell them about his side of the adventure, the man actually was rather relieved when the other kids left him behind. Liocke really was starting to grow into himself and looked, from the outside, like the biggest threat to his plan. He was older, wiser, and probably would be stronger as well. If he could get him out of the way and separated from the other children, it would be rather easy to overpower the group, he figured.

As Locke only glared at him though, he realized it would take a bit more to knock the kid out. He knew of one spell, a great spell, that he used in the military frequently. It put people completely under, almost like anesthesia, and was rather useful on battlefields, as to keep men under if emergency surgery was required. It drained him though, horribly, and he was already so out of it. He wouldn't be able to do it to the other children, but…if it took the strongest out…

"And then," Locke whispered with a frown, "I woke up there, in front of the barrier, with you guys. So I guess I didn't do a lot, really, on this job."f

"You did plenty," Navi assured him as she took the head of the bed and Ravan took the foot. She was kinda grossed out less by the thought of them sharing a bed and more by the fact that his feet were going to be shoved in her face. Way grosser. "And look, everything turned out great in the end, didn't it? We completed our first, real job! Now we can go out on a bunch more!"

Locke was openly excited by this and Ravan only grumbled that they should go to bed; they would be leaving rather early the next morning, but Haven said nothing. She hadn't said much, the entire time, but the kids welcomed her silence. It was rare.

They were all exhausted though. Now with their bellies filled and excitement to return to their respective adults in the morning, they all fell asleep rather easily. Even Haven. But something woke her, as the hours ticked away slowly, and she found her eyes opened, nearing sunrise yet not quite there, and only laid around for a long few months before getting out of bed.

Everything calmed, in the mansion, given the late hour. No one had headed out to their homes yet it seemed, but still, they were silent. Resting. Other than the occasional moan from the ill, it felt rather peaceful. Haven didn't wanna bother anyone down there though and only sat on the steps of the long staircase, peeking down into their world from above.

She wanted to feel accomplished. She really did. And she really was, honestly, she knew. They'd taken down the leader of a dark guild, a former general in the military, and she knew that her father would have to at least admit that he was wrong. She was ready. Sure, she needed the other kids to help her, if she was being honest, but if he was being honest, the way he was trying to hamstring her was just unfair. She wasn't a baby. She wasn't like Marin. Or Kai. She wanted this. Really wanted this. To help others. To further her magical power. It wasn't right for him to try and box her in.

And was the job really done? The one on the flier was, sure, but…

"Haven," came a hiss from behind her. "What are you doing? You're going to get in trouble."

"We're not at home, Locke," she pointed out as she only continued to sit there, on the steps, not even glancing back at him. "There's no one to get us in trouble."

And what a liberating realization that was.

It was difficult to even want to get home, honestly, if it meant stripping that away.

Slowly, Locke moved to take a seat on the step above the younger girl, sighing a bit as he sat with his head in his hands. He wasn't sure what they were doing, but he wouldn't just leave Haven out there, by herself. Not when they were somewhere so unfamiliar.

"Something," she told him softly, "has been bothering me."

A lot of things should bother her, Locke was pretty sure. Mostly the terrible things that she did to other children. Or her disrespectful behavior. The way she pronounced tomatoes (she sounded ridiculous). All great points that should keep her up late into the night.

But no.

That wasn't it.

Rather, she went on, "There was something trapped in here, with these people, that they wanted. The dark guild did. What was it? And why didn't the mayor tell us about it?"

"What difference does it make?"

"It makes a lot of difference, Locke," she griped softly, turning to glare over her shoulder at him. "If we had something in Magnolia that a dark guild was trying to get, enough so that they surrounded our city, wouldn't you wanna know about it?"

"I guess if I was a citizen. But we're not citizens here. They don't have to explain anything to us."

"Aren't you worried about why they're all sick? Huh?" She jumped up then, still trying to keep her voice down. It helped, anyways, the rags they had tied over their faces. Even if it felt a bit funny. "You missed it, 'cause you were off being no help at all-"

"Hey-"

"-but they got sick and had to quarantine. But with no aid? From the capital? Or surrounding cities? How? That doesn't make any sense. They knew to keep themselves holed up in here, that there was a certain for them all to be here. Think about it. They couldn't have been in their homes when the dark guild showed up. Then they would have been hurt, some of them, maybe, by the guild. No. They were in here, all ready. All of them. Quarantined together. He ever said some people died, the mayor did. That that was the smell. That was what reeked. The dead. But have you seen a mass grave? Dead bodies?"

"W-Well, I haven't explore the mansion."

She only nodded though. "Then we better hurry and do that, huh? Before the sun gets all the way up and they find us."

"Haven, I don't-"

"It's like I said, Locke," she told him as, slowly, she climbed the stairs once more, forcing him to lead the way. "We're not at home. We're on a job. No one can get us in trouble here."

With Haven he was slowly finding liberation wasn't free.

"If I were a mayor," she whispered softly as, on the second floor, they began to glance around the long hallway, "where would I hide my super secret thing that a dark guild would be willing to infiltrate my town for?"

"The basement," Locke whispered and yeah, she kind of agreed, but at the same time, they were both pretty done with basements for a bit.

"The attic," she decided because it was the antithesis of a basement. And also, she was just naturally divisive.

It was too difficult though, to find a stairway to an attic (if it even existed), but they searched around anyways, creeping around the hallways and trying doors. There was one door, at the end of a hall, that was actually locked (the others hadn't been), but that wasn't what was most notable about it.

"The smell," Locke griped as he held a hand over the cloth covering up his nose, "is coming from in there."

Haven agreed, standing facing away from it as, from behind her cloth, she ordered simply, "Pick the lock."

"Haven-"

"Do it."

"But what if there's, like, dead bodies or something in there? And that's where they keep them?"

"Locke-"

"Fine." He dropped to his knees then, casting a spell to extend his index finger, making it metallic. "But this is really dumb and we haven't even gotten paid yet."

She didn't care.

Something stank about Haiko. And it was more than their dead.

It was easy enough for Locke to get passed the door and, as he stood, he only looked to Haven. He'd always assist her, even in the illicit, but only as an accessory. She was always the one that had to go through with the deeds. And though her nose begged for her to do otherwise, she shoved him to the side (just for doubting her) and dropped a hand to do the doorknob, which she began to turn slowly.

There were no dead bodies inside. There was hardly anything inside. Just a mostly baron room with a single, raised podium in the center of the room, atop which sat a glass box.

"Be careful," Locke warned softly though he still followed Haven, right through the doorway. "Haven. Something's not right."

She knew. She could tell. Not only did the place smell rank, but there was an intense feeling of magical pressure in the room. It was more choking than the scent, even. She felt like they were being suffocated.

"It's just a...necklace?" Haven tried hard not to be disappointed when she got to the glass box and glanced down in it. "I don't understand."

Locke came over as well, breathing heavily through his mouth though it helped little. "It's the gem. That stinks. That red gem in there. It's… There's something wrong with it."

"Pick the lock."

"Huh?"

"On the container." She nodded at it, there, on one of the sides of the glass cube that sealed the necklace away. "Pick it."

"Haven, I don't-"

"Do it."

"No. That's stealing."

"I'm not going to steal it, stupid. But we need to look at it and find out-"

"You kids," came a voice from behind them and Locke hated Haven, he really did, "shouldn't be in here."

Haven's eyes darkened as Locke's only fell to the ground, him turning to face the man that now stood in the doorway. It was the true mayor, of course, and he looked so displeased that, well, Locke only came forward, head bowed, in hopes of seeming remorseful.

The girl though? Not so much.

"Why?" she questioned back as Locke on grimaced. "What is this? What sort of magic is this? This is what that general wanted, isn't it? What's it doing?"

"I do not have to tell-"

"My father," Haven kept right up, "is the guild master. If I tell him that you're doing something illegal here-"

"You children breaking into this room was illegal."

"We were invited guests."

"Not into this room."

He had her. Locke glanced behind himself at Haven, to see if she was struggling to come up with something witty or had just given up. Neither. It was only him it seemed that she had to get into endless one upping with. Instead, she was moving in now. Figuratively. Physically, she was standing still by the gross gem, eyes set to accusation.

"Why does this gem reek of magic? Disgusting smelling magic? What did you do to it?" Haven was full of questions, it seemed. "This is what the dark guild wanted, isn't it? And you were holed up in here, hiding it from them. Did you take it from them?"

"That is an overly simplified-"

"Did you?"

"Haven," Locke complained. "It's none of our-"

"It's been more trouble than it was worth, this entire time." And the frail man seemed to break some then as, finally, he stepped into the room with the children. He bore no mask over his face now though, taking the full brunt of the stench that he'd cultivating. "Yes, if that is your true concern, this gemstone is what the dark guild was after. It is also, unfortunately, what I fear made my town sick in the first place."

Locke felt more at ease as, obviously, the man was offering them up the information now, rather than Haven just forcing it out of him, and asked a question of his own.

"Where," he began slowly, glancing over at the thing, "did you get it?"

"We had a festival, a few months back, and a traveling merchant sold it to one of my underlings." He sighed then, the man did, looking passed the children. "It was said to bring great magical power to an area. To harness it. The more people to wear it, bonding it to them, the more power it would grow. So I had it sent from home to home, in my town, hoping for my people to help spread the wealth, as it were. We are not a great, magical area, which is why we rely so heavily on guilds. Even those of us who are gifted, such as myself, do not possess much power, you see. My hope was that the younger generations would capitalize on more enegry filtering through the area, but… The sickness began."

"Why," Haven took back over, "did you not put a stop to it then?"

"Put a stop to it? How? It is forbidden, truly, you know. To attempt to counteract the flow of magic in a region. Even with such much abundance. I suppose the fear is that, somehow, one could syphon from a certain area into another, but-"

"Anima," Locke whispered. Edolas was, after all, one of his favorite bedtime stories his father and Lily told.

Haven, who only had her stupid Aunt Lisanna to thank for it, was less amused.

"Did you ever really contact the capital?" the little girl asked.

"Vaguely," he admitted with a sigh. "I was fearful of punishment. Rebuking. Especially for my people. They were merely doing as I commanded. I-"

"How did the dark guild get involved?" Haven stopped him. "And how did they know about the necklace?"

"I needed help. Any help I could find. Illicit help, of course. Obviously. I had already taken all my people, ill from this gemstone, into my mansion. I did not know what to do. If further exposure would cure or hurt. A dark guild, children, simply means unsanctioned. Less likely to get back to the Magic Council or the capital. But when they answered my request, I knew that I could not give the gem to them. They would only use...whatever it is for nefarious purposes. I had to keep it from them. It was only then that I reached out to you, Fairy Tail, with the intention to keep the truth about the gem hidden. Have you rid us of the dark guild and then-"

"And then what?"

"I suppose that is where I am stuck now, yes?"

Haven wasn't impressed. "You did all of this just for some magic? More magic? There's magic all around! If you opened a guild, in your town, mages would come and work there for you and then, they'd, like, I dunno, I guess marry your people or whatever and then have kids that had magic in them and-"

"Do you want to get rid of it?" Locke wasn't as interested in that aspect of things. "The curse that is on the gem?"

"Curse?"

"That's what I think it is." He looked back at it then, the boy did, nostrils burning as they begged him not to. "I can remove it for you, I think. With my cleanse magic. I guess."

"T-Truly?"

"Is that what you want?"

The man only nodded, just slightly before reaching into his pocket shakily for a small key. For the glass container, no doubt.

"But please, children," he insisted to them. "Do not touch it."

Haven was skeptical of Locke's abilities (she mostly wanted to get back to berating the man on his poor choices), but the boy was confident. And, as the case was raised, the mayor regarded him with caution, but Locke only held his hand out, magic circles appearing beneath them.

As they all watched, the deep dark red gem slowly turned as if the life were being drained out of it, into a black, void stone that looked equally as out of place on the simple chain it hung from.

"You did it!" Haven couldn't help it. She giggled then, looking to Locke who only beamed with pride.

:The mayor though reached out, taking the chain first in his hand before lifting the stone to his nose and taking a sniff. It was hard to tell, given the scent had more than infiltrated the surrounding area, but he was pretty certain….

"Are you sure that it is safe?" the man asked then, looking to the children.

Haven nodded as Locke had his turn at giggling. Not so useless after all. He couldn't wait to tell his mom! And dad. Especially Lilly.

"There's no more magic coming from it," the girl said simply and it was true enough. There was not. "Whatever it was cursed with, it's all gone."

His eyes welled with tears then, the man's did, and that kinda brought the mood down a bit, for the two kids. The sun was coming up then, outside the window, and it was morning. Time to head home.

"I cannot thank you enough," the mayor gushed as, swallowing back his tears, he only stared down at them. "Fairy Tail. I… You completed the job as it was posted, but you have also rid my town of a far too heavy burden. That requires a further payment, does it not?"

Haven hardly cared about any payment at all (okay, maybe she did a little). She'd now have twice the accomplishment to wave in Laxus' face. This was the best job she'd ever taken, by far. Most rewarding for sure.

Still, Locke spoke for them (he was fearful Haven would request more jewels and make Fairy Tail out to be some sort of cut-throat, shady guild), telling the man simply, "We don't need anything else. It was part of the job too, practically. We're just happy to help."

"But..." And his eyes lit up then, as watery as they were, as the man looked once more to the gem in his hand. He quickly moved to pass it off on the children.

"Here," he said. "Take it." And when they both seemed uncertain, he only insisted. "Yes. As a memento.. Of a job well done. Yes?"

It was hard to pass up.

The mayor had other things to do, anyways, than convince the children of their good deeds, and he excused himself them, leaving the necklace back on it's podium, where both children went to stare down at it.

Finally, as Locke's face lit up, Have felt hers do the same. He only reached out though, to pick in the chain, danging the dark gem before them.

"We did it," he told her, teeth flashing just a bit and Haven only nodded some.

They had.

"You should take it," he offered up then, and even held the necklace out to her. "Haven. You're the one that thought to come in here."

"Yeah, but you're the one that lifted the curse or whatever."

Locke just shook his head. "I want you to have it."

And, well, you didn't have to tell the girl twice to accept a gift.

When they went to tumble back, head to foot, in their bed, they found that the hour had gotten too late and, before they even had a chance to fall asleep, Ravan and Navi were up, ready to start back.

Navi was less than pleased to hear about the extra adventure Haven and Locke had had, but Ravan only snorted and grumbled that he was going to ditch out on them, seriously, if they didn't hurry it up.

"You gotta get back to Erza?" Haven sneered and he ignored her because, well, yeah. He did.

She didn't push the issue too much.

They all did.

In what would be a day of travel for them, however, was turning out to be a day of preparation for Kai and Marin. It took a lot of prepping, obviously, to get ready for ghost hunting. It was rather easy to convince Mrs. Master that they required the guildhall for the evening and while Erza still found their attempt at a job (if you could call it that) to be a bit disrespectful given her original directive had been to practice their magic, but she'd be glad to be rid of the children for the evening, finally. Use Ravan being gone to her advantage.

Kai and Marin spent the day debating strategy. Err, well, Marin sat around reading to Kai some big books from down in the book room her mother gave to them, suggesting they read up on what they were to be facing.

"You never know," Mirajane told them with a sigh though her eyes were, instead, on where Laxus sat, drinking himself out of his misery (or at least attempting to), "what to expect with ghosts, but it's best to go in with as much knowledge as possible."

Marin was a bit scared, truth be told, and was kinda glad that it was her Uncle Elf that was going to be accompanying them in their lock in. Him? Not nearly as much. Still, he was glad to get to spend some time around his niece, at least. And Kai. Sort of.

"Oh, yeah," the boy said excitedly as he and Marin sat up around the hall the longer the night went on. "Pretty soon there'll be no one here and we'll have the whole place to ourselves!"

"We'll be working though," Elfman reminded as he sat at a table with the kids. Marin, who had her head down on the table, was honestly probably sleeping. "I thought you had this all planned out?"

"I got everything I need," Kai assured him, patting at the knapsack on his back Erza had assisted him in packing. "Candles, matches-"

"Someone," Gray grumbled as he passed by, heading out for the night, "take those from him."

"-flashlights," Kai went on, "salt, snacks, flour, a book for demonic names you should never say unless you wanna get haunted, a board with a bunch of letter son it-"

"Wait." Elfman was frowning then. "I have a few questions."

"I probably only got a few answers," Kai assured him.

"Why salt?"

"To toss at the ghost, if we find him, Elf," the little boy explained. "It'll make him melt."

"I don't think-"

"But I do."

"And why flour?"

"To toss all over the floor," Kai said, going right along, "so if the ghost walks over it, we'll see his footprints."

"Don't ghosts float?"

"I mostly just wanna toss flour everywhere."

Elfman couldn't argue much with that. Sounded like a grand time!

"And the book of demonic names?" the man questioned then. "Why would we want that?"

"I figured we could say all the names in the book and, if it's our ghost, he'll definitely come out! If we call his name and all."

"But if it's not, you'll be summoning a bunch of other demonic stuff!"

"Mrs. Master says that if I summon any more demons, it'll be fine," Kai told him with a toss of the hand. "She'll just absorb them."

"We're not even looking for demons," Elfman went on, enraged a bit at the lackadaisical attitude the boy had towards such a thing. "We're looking for ghosts."

"Yeah, but don't you kinda wanna just read the names and see if it works? Because I do."

"No! I don't! I-"

"Elfman."

Erza was standing there then, before the table, arms folded across her chest as she studied the other man. It wasn't his best moment. He was very heated over Kai's antics, already, before even ten o'clock.

Turning his gaze on the swords woman, the man only asked, "Yeah? What is it? I'm having a pretty big conversation over here."

"He doesn't like," Kai complained to the woman, "our demon plan."

"Why not?" Erza hadn't come over to get into specifics, but… "I came up with it myself."

"You- We're not hunting demons, Erza!" Elfman was agitated once more. "I'm starting to think this is all just some big ruse so Kai can make a wreck of the guildhall."

"I'm a member too," the boy complained. "It's within my rights. Erza pays my dues."

"Regardless," Erza sighed as she wished to move right along so she could get home sooner, "I am on my way out. I trust then, Elfman, that you will keep up the safety of the children for the night?"

"Yeah, I guess," the guy grumbled. "I am a man, after all. Wouldn't be much of one if I let something happen to them."

Nodding, she said, "I have supplied him with salt, should the ghost become too powerful for you all to-"

"Just what do you think ghosts are, Erza? Snails?"

Still, she only bid the man and children goodbye, reminding Kai once more to be on his best behavior (or at least the best of behavior he could be on, given he was on a job), before departing for the night. It had been a bit since her home was just that; hers. She was more than ecstatic at the thought. A nice, hot bath while reading a nice, hot novel, alone, without someone whining that a certain someone else had taken it upon himself to ban him from their bedroom.

She enjoyed the two boys, she truly did, but their absence was always appreciated.

The night was slow in it's dwindle and Mirajane was, as always, the last of the bar staff to be around. She was yawning a bit, as she went through her closing routine and only came over, eventually, to gently awaken Marin and inform her that she was leaving.

"Your uncle and Kai," she told the girl," are down in the cellar. Investigating. Do you still wanna stay? You can come home with me, if you want."

But Marin only shook her head with a yawn, shoving up to, first, hug her mother, before rushing off to find her friend.

He was very busy tossing flour all over the place. Elfman, who was flipping through the book of names that should never be mentioned aloud, didn't seem too concerned. Only called out to his niece to be careful.

"What are you doing?" Marin giggled at Kai. "Making a mess?"

Well, yes, but something important as well.

The night was only just beginning and they had a lot more of it before them, but that was okay. Mrs. Master told them that they could explore every nook and cranny of the place, in search for their target. Besides, Lisanna was the one opening the next day.

She could bear the responsibility of hiring the two for a needless task.

"I don't think, Elf," Marin whispered when they went back upstairs and the man only came to take a few swigs from a bottle behind the bar, "that this'll help us find the ghost."

"And hey! Now you're as bad as the ghost," Kai complained.

He only waved the kids off though. "A man works better when he's a bit intoxicated. It's a common fact."

Which made the kids insist that they needed something too, to help them get through the long night, and Elfman only poured them some juice and, well, they called it even.

They were very busy, up in the infirmary, investigating (making a mess of the place) when they heard it. All three of them.

The guildhall door opened and closed.

"It must be," Elfman whispered softly, "big sis."

"No way!" Kai had no fear. Nothing in his life had ever hurt him (other than, you know, the big sea monster that ate half his village and his parents; but everything that happened before Erza was pretty unimportant) and he had no fear. Especially not with a big man there to protect him. "It's the ghost!"

"Kai, wait!" Elfman tried to grab him, as he ran passed, but the boy only slipped passed him and was rushing right out of the infirmary, down the stairs, and to whatever it was that was had just entered the bar. He thought it was weird, fine, that it had come through a door, but at the same time, he knew it could be a demon. One that he'd summoned. When he read out it's name when Elfman wasn't listening.

"Oi, kid," was all Elfman heard as he rushed after the boy. "Stop throwing salt at me."

"Get out of here then! You ghost!"

"I'm not a ghost and ya know it!"

"Bickslow?" Elfman was more than a bit peeved when he found the man there, in the bar area, with a salt throwing Kai. "What are you doing here? Oh, I get it now. You think that you can just show up and one up me, huh? Be a better uncle than me? You're not. You're not anywhere near as good an uncle as me. I'm the one leading this ghost hunting patrol, not you!"

"Ghost hunt- And look, Elfman, I'm a way better uncle than you, so I don't even have to play stupid games like this. What are you guys even doin' here?" The seith hadn't hit the lights downstairs, when he came in, and it did look a bit spooky, maybe, down in the bar. Marin only stayed close to the staircase, ready to run back up it if need be. "Ghost huntin', huh?"

"Yeah." Kai still held his sack of salt, but was no longer tossing it at the man. "Mrs. Lissy gave us a job and we're gonna finish it."

"Lissy, huh?"

"What," Elfman questioned right back with a frown as he came closer to the other man, "are you doing here? And where have you been, anyways? I haven't seen you in weeks!"

"I've been on a big job, yeah? For the master and all? The boss?" Bickslow scratched at his head. "And uh, look! I'm back! And where's my welcome party? Late, is it? Tonight? I must've lost track of time. I'll just be on my way-"

But Elfman wasn't buying it. And as he sent the children off to flour the kitchen area (Lisanna would be more than a bit pissed at both her siblings, the next morning), he and his brother-in-law went to sit down at the now lighted bar, a mug of ale for each.

"I've been caught, alright?" Bickslow complained as he only stared in gloom down at his. "Like the dirty rat I am."

"Papa's a rat," his dolls agreed and, well, Elfman didn't necessarily disagree.

"What have you been doing? Huh?" the muscular man complained. "You've been the one hanging around the bar after close, haven't you?"

"I stole a copy of Lissy's key, for lockin' up the joint, yeah. Come around after close, do what I need. Almost got caught a few times by damn Kinana, after I passed out drunk a few times, down in the storage area." Bickslow shrugged some. "I just aint' ready yet. To come back home. I..."

"If you're trying to play around with my sister again," Elfman told him stiffly, "then we're going to have a problem. Ignoring your wife and son-"

"It ain't got nothin' to do with Lissy and Ajax! Honest." Bickslow glanced up at the other man. "I've been helpin' out plenty, recently. "Or at least I had. But this job boss sent me out on… I finished it, fine, but not how he wanted, is all. I lost track of the guy I was trailing and I got most of the information boss wanted, but…well… I just don't wanna tell Laxus about it, I guess."

"So what? How long were you going to just hang around in the shadows? Huh? Are you a man or a mouse?"

"I feel like a little kid," Bickslow admitted softly, with a frown back at his drink. "When it comes to the boss, sometimes, still. Especially when I disappoint 'im."

"Ah, well, he won't care much right now," Elfman assured the other guy. "Haven's got his head fucked up. The kid and her friends all went off on a super big job in Haiko. He's pretty fucked up about that. I doubt he even cares what you're doing."

"Is that right? The kid went off without even any advice from her most accomplished uncle?"

And Elfman was growling then. "Her most important uncle is right here, waiting for her to call on him if she needs him!"

"Yeah, he is!"

They had a strong glaring match then, the seith and the man, but just as quickly, they were each snorting.

"What are the other two doin' then?" Bickslow asked as, finally, he brought the drink up to his lips. "Huh? Marin and that boy?"

"We're," Elfman told him, swallowing down his own ale, "ghost hunting."

"Ghost hunting?" the dolls all asked as they floated about. "Elfman?"

"Yeah," he answered them. "Lisanna was complaining to me about how she thought someone was hanging around. Are you and my sister even together? Evergreen wouldda known if it was me, sneaking around. And what's the big idea, anyways, not even telling your wife? Were you ever going to come out of hiding?"

"Eventually," Bickslow defended. "Just not yet."

"Yeah, well, the kids will tell her," Elfman pointed out. "So you better hurry and get back."

"I can't let them tell her that I was the one sneaking around though," the seith complained. "Lissy'll be super pissed at me then."

Especially when she saw what the bar looked like in the morning.

Elfman, who wasn't typically enthused with Bickslow, regarded the man with distaste and yet… They were brothers. Kind of. And that still meant something.

"The kids will forget all about you," Elfman told him simply. "If they catch their ghost."

Which was much easier to fake, given the seith's abilities. All it took was transferring his doll souls into some bed sheets in the infirmary and then, wow, there were ghosts. Marin and Kai had been very busy definitely not sneaking food from the kitchen, nope, not at all, when they came floating in, the white sheets having a green tint about them and voices that oohed and awed in ways Marin could just almost place.

Kai, for all his bravery and fearlessness, screamed in quite a girly way (he was thankful Erza and Ravan weren't around to hear it) as he dove behind Marin. She was terrified as well, but it manifested in other ways and she held her hands out, high pressures of water shooting out as she yelled something or other about water dragon slayer stuff. Kai couldn't hear. Not over his own yelling.

Their sheets soaked through, the dolls only rushed right back to their own bodies before following their father out, who was headed under the insistence of Elfman back to his wife and son.

"Marin's a slayer," his dolls buzzed and he allowed it, until they got too close to home, at which time he shut them the heck up before they spilled the beans to Lisanna.

She'd have enough on her mind, anyways, the next morning when she found that she now also had a flooded kitchen to deal with.

"Marin!" Kai tackled her the second the threat of ghosts were gone, down to the ground, getting them both soaked. "You did it! You beat the ghost!"

"Damn right she did," Elfman agreed as he peeked his head in there, a grin bright as day on his face. "My niece is such a man! I've never been more proud!"

He would, in the morning, when his other niece proved herself far more, but at the moment, he didn't think he could be happier. Especially when, with their job over, the kids had some more juice, he had some more free beer, and then they crapped out on the sleeping mats Mira had been kind enough to give them.

Though Laxus stayed up all night, worried over his girls, the two bearing the Dreyar name hardly had a care in the world.


	5. Chapter 5

The night was excellent for Erza, who spent it completely unbothered by thoughts of the children at all. While she could always count on Kai to be with the Strauss family, it was rare that she had no fear of Ravan at all. Even if she convinced him to spend the night somewhere, he was always prone to showing back up at home at strange hours, not fearful of the darkness like his brother and always prone to fighting with the other children, therefore ending up kicked out by his friends. Though she wouldn't trade Ravan and Kai's presence in her life for the world, breaks from them did give her a chance to clear her head. Especially ones where she was completely alone, as she was now.

It was relaxing. Rejuvenation. And oh, she couldn't help, but to hope that, as she returned to her empty home after her early morning workout, she could be gifted another night. Completely free of stinky boys and their petulance. She might even cook herself a fancy dinner. Or order in. Order out? The options were endless!

She headed off to shower, as she always did after a workout, and consider her choices. Though she would still have to go down to the guild at some point, to consult with Kai about his busy night ghost hunting, she hoped to easily send him packing back to the Dreyar household (or one of the Strauss; whichever) along with Marin. They would no doubt be tired.

As she stepped onto guild grounds, she was glad to find both children there, happily sharing their exploits with anyone that would listen. Well, Kai was. Marin sat by his side, humbly nodding along whenever he informed them that not only was she a second generation dragon slayer; Marin was also a _ghost_ slayer.

"Erza!" Kai jumped up at the sight of her, rushing right over. "I finished my job! Marin and I caught a ghost and solved the problem! I'm just as good as Ravan now, right?"

Her face changed a bit, the woman's did, and he couldn't rightly read it, but he didn't have much time to, honestly, as once he was close enough, Erza did something she'd never done to him before.

"I am so," she said as she grabbed the back of his head before slamming it against what usually would be her chest, but given his height, was more her stomach, "proud of you, Kai. You are not as good as Ravan; you are as good as you. And that is all I've ever-"

"Erza, that hurt!" He shoved away from her then as being banged against the woman's armor was not something he was too thrilled by. Rubbing at his head, he only frowned at her. "Why'd you do that?"

"I was merely showing you how much I care for you."

"Well, just say it next time!" Still, he only sulked for a bit longer before coming closer again and hugging the woman himself. Against the cool steel of her armor, he whispered, "I feel like a real member now."

Her smile was softer and, as she patted him on his head, she agreed, "You definitely are, Kai." Just as quickly though, she was adding, "But you must begin to practice your magic."

"Yeah," he sighed because he couldn't go long without Erza mentioning this to him. "I know."

She sat with him and Marin though, the swordswoman did, listening as they described their night in full. It was rather hard to follow, on the woman's end, what exactly happened there at the end, but she nodded in approval regardless. It was as Lisanna passed, griping something under her breath about the mess the children had left, that she got the full story. Not that it helped unmuddy the ghost portion of things.

Still, with no sign of her other headache around, Erza was pretty content with heading back home to start a full day being child free. It was a nice thought. For all of three minutes. Just as she was walking through the guildhall doors, she was shoved into by the rushing Ravan, who was headed through them himself.

He looked ready to growl at whoever he'd run into, but stopped when he realized it had been the person he was running towards.

"You've returned," she whispered simply in response. It wasn't that she wasn't glad to see the boy (or the other children who were just now entering the gates, him apparently having been leading the way), but her day alone… "Ravan."

After having been so pumped to see her, he was more than a bit thrown off by her tone. Frowning then, he took a step back and made a face of disinterest. "Don't sound so mad about it."

"I am not," she assured him. "I merely… I assume, then that your job went well?"

"Well, you said to finish it or not come back, right?"

"I suppose I did."

They both stared one another down then, in the doorway to the guild. It might have gone on longer, was Ravan not the one being shove out of the way then.

"Move." Haven literally pushed him to the side. "Stupid."

Clearly, camaraderie hadn't been bred on their journey together.

Her father seemed surprised to see her for some reason (though, honestly, he was mostly relieved) as he sat at his table with only Freed to keep him company. She was headed his way and Laxus was ready to have a few words with her, but she didn't make it to him before she was surrounded by others.

"Haven!" It was Elfman, first, who came to lift her up. "You completed your job, right?"

"Yeah, I did. And put me down!"

But how could he? When he was so overcome with joy?

"My two nieces," he beamed as she held her up on his shoulder. "Both men."

"Marin's not a man."

"But you are?"

That came from Locke, who was walking passed then, hoping to find his parents. He placed his mother, over at a table with her team and rushed right over to explain to her how he'd been the one to rid the gem of its curse. Though he was kind of disappointed his father wasn't there, he figured it would be more rewarding to have his mother gush over him some without the man's critiques. No, he'd deal with those later. He'd enjoy those later.

Right now, he just wanted someone to tell him how great and amazing it was that he'd done that. She was the exact person.

Navi didn't find her family at the hall yet (she honestly hadn't expected them to be) and she easily turned to run back home instead. It was just as well. She was sure they'd hardly be able to contain themselves, waiting for news of her job.

"Ravan!" Kai couldn't help it. He was so excited to see his brother, he came to toss his arms around him and hug him tightly. "Did Erza tell you?"

"Tell me what?" he complained though most his energy went into trying to shove the boy off. "Kai?"

"Me and Marin took a job too!"

"You what?"

"We slayed a ghost!"

"There's no such thing as ghosts."

Kai let him go. "Well, you weren't there, so-"

"I didn't have to be there to know that!"

Still, Erza found herself smiling at the two boys. "It is a poignant pride, knowing that you both are victorious in your own ways. Look at you. Both of you. You've grown so much. And yet there is much growing to do. Come, Ravan, tell me of your adventure and your brother can inform you of his. Perhaps, next time such a situation befalls us, I too will have a story to toss in the mix."

"Please, don't," Ravan complained though he did follow Erza over to a table.

Marin wanted to go be with them, Kai and Ravan, but felt it necessary instead to go stand at her Uncle Elf's feet, staring up at the griping Haven (who was only moments away from shocking the big oaf), and awaiting what would come next. Haven probably had a lot to tell them.

"Put her down, Elfman," Evergreen complained. "Or come sit her down over here, at least."

He could hardly hear her though. He was too busy beaming with pride.

"Yeah, Elf." And though Lisanna was the only barmaid on duty at the moment, she came over to the table with Evergreen. "Some of us would like to hear about the job too."

Haven would admit though, as her uncle finally caved and carried her over there, she felt rather at place, on his shoulder. Not because she liked her uncle or anything, but rather, she was much taller than all the others and, well, yeah. That was definitely about right.

Though Haven kind of wanted to go over to her father and talk to him first (more like gloat over him), she couldn't resist all the bragging she was about to get to do. Besides, she didn't _hate _her aunts and uncle. Or sister. She just had a hard time getting passed the deep embarrassment they all brought her.

Freed went over, at the behest of Laxus, to listen as well while he only sat there, alone, waiting. It was at the departure of Freed that Bickslow finally came over to sit with the man. Though he too wanted to congratulate Haven, he had a bigger problem to face at the moment.

"You said," Laxus muttered around his coffee, though his eyes only stayed over on his oldest, "that you tracked him to a hideout, yeah?"

Bickslow nodded some, staring at his idol, tongue feeling far too heavy just that once. He'd informed the man of this the second he came in the bar that day, but Laxus only waved him off until they could speak alone. In Mira's absence, Freed refused to leave Laxus' side. At least until Haven returned. With that out of the way, the pair could speak.

"Yeah," he agreed with a nod. "I did. But I...I lost him, boss, somewhere along the way. I'm sorry. I don't think I got much good info on him either, but-"

"But he's out of this area?" Laxus asked simply. "Gone? You're sure?"

"Yeah. Tracked him halfway across Fiore. I dunno what he was doing in Magnolia, but-"

"But," Laxus finished as, slowly, he got to his feet, "he's gone."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"That's all I needed, Bickslow." He was walking off then. "I'll be in my office. Send Haven in there, after she's finished with you all."

She wouldn't be that for a bit. Her mother arrived not soon after that and she too had to hear the story and, yeah, she'd wanted to rub Laxus' face in all her success before, but now? Now she was being treated with the attention and respect she always craved. She wasn't about to give it up just to go hear him gripe at her about nonsense.

There was no one Navi wanted to see more than her father though. She could sense him, all of them, really, as she got to their apartment and fumbled a bit with the key. It wasn't the first time she'd stayed away from her parents for an extended period, but it was the first time that she was the one out of town instead of them. That she had a story to tell that, while it didn't rival any of theirs, she felt like they'd at least wanna hear it. More than they did those silly little jobs around town Master Laxus made her and the other kids take usually.

She was expecting them all to be in bed, truly, when she came in, and this was kind of the case. They were sleeping, at least. In the living room though, oddly enough. Her twin brothers were taking residence in the arms of at least one parent as Natsu and Lucy seemed to have been up all night with them, passing out on the couch in their exhaustion. Lucy was slumped over a bit, into Natsu's shoulder, as Lucky, who was snuggled up in her arms, snored softly. Her father's snores were echoed by Iggy and Happy, who napped in Lucy's hair, was giving off some purrs himself.

With a bit of a frown, she decided to not wake them up. Her job would be just as important in a few hours when they were better rested. And she was a little exhausted herself. It would be nice to sleep in her own bed, Ravan's gross feet, obviously, being absent.

But she was only standing there, not even making any noise, only staring at all of them when, suddenly, her father's snores stopped. Just like that. His head, which had been thrown back, snapped to attention then as hie eyes opened easily and he was looking right at her.

"Hey!" he said loudly as he got to his feet, luckily still conscious of the baby in his arms. "Navi's home!"

The twins didn't quite care for such a rude awakening, but her mother and Happy both rose at that easily, the woman blinking away the sleep as whatever she greeted her daughter was drown out by her husband and the Exceed merely jumping off her head and going to land in the arms of the little girl instead.

It was definitely nice, Navi decided as she only giggled at how quickly her father was talking, asking her all sorts of questions far too fast for her to even make them out, to be home.

Haven felt much the same, all the attention she was getting from her extended family. She was a bit annoyed to keep hearing them talk so much about stupid Marin though, in response to her accomplishments, but she was too into herself and making sure not to get in trouble (not as long as she could ride the first big job praise train) to make many complaints.

She had to head into her father's office eventually though. He was waiting, after all. Pumped up even more now, if it was possible, from the interest she'd been receiving, she walked in with her head high and her tongue sharp. Laxus didn't even seem to notice her though, for a long moment, as he had some sort of big map spread across his desk.

"What are you doing?" she complained, annoyed at the lack of attention. It was truly his, after all, that she coveted all along. "Laxus? Are you going somewhere?"

"No," he told her simply. "I'm merely tracking… It's not important right now."

Laxus sighed as he lifted his head, looking over at his daughter then. "You can sit, Haven, if you want. I wanna talk."

"About how you were wrong and I was right and I should be able to go on whatever job I want, whenever I want?"

"No," he snorted. "We're gonna talk about what a brat you are. I'll start-"

"I finished my job! And you're still gonna be a jerk?" She tried hard not to get upset, but her father just always managed to get under her skin. Worse than Ravan and Locke both. And way worse than Marin, even. He could just look at her, Laxus could, and get her in a bad mood. "You could just admit that you were wrong, Laxus."

"I wasn't wrong, brat."

"You were too. You said that I couldn't do it, but I did. I-"

"I never said, Haven, that you couldn't finish the damn job."

"Yes, you-"

"No, I didn't." And he hadn't. "You can complete most jobs. Most jobs aren't really that serious. Your magic could guide you through anything. That's not what being a wizard is about. What answering jobs is about. There's more to it than that. I didn't like that you were so far from home. I didn't think you should go. You're still a kid. And kids shouldn't be so far from home."

"But-"

"But you did it and you came back. Great, Haven. If you went away again tomorrow, you could still have the same things I worried about happen to you. I'm not worried about whether or not you can fight a monster or a bandit or something dumb like that. I have faith in you, Haven, and your magic. I trained you. I know what you can do. But your not street smart. You got tricked, your first job out, by a dark guild!"

"That wasn't my-"

"Did the dark guild say they were looking for Fairy Tail, Haven?" he asked with a raise of his eyebrow. "Or did you offer it up to them?"

She only glared. "What do you know? You haven't even listened to me talk about it."

But he'd heard, all the way from his office, as the kids loudly exclaimed their accomplishments.

"You're not as smart as you think you are, Haven," he told her simply. "Especially if you think I'm just doing this all to be mean. You're my daughter. Of course I don't want you out there, risking your life, why? Because you don't wanna go on jobs with grownups? You could be hurt or killed or… Things just have a knack for working out, here, in Fairy Tail, but you can't count on that. Your Aunt Lisanna died, once, basically, when we were kids. You know that. And why? Because she was out on a job she had no business on. Elfman too. This is a serious thing. This is a life and death thing. Not everyday, fine, but it being that way even one day means it's not something I want my daughter doing. It's as simple as that."

She was smoldering then, right at him, but Laxus just looked her right back in the eyes, daring her to speak. Daring her to challenge him. When she didn't, he snorted before looking off.

"But," he said with a shrug, "what can I do? The others aren't going to see their kids demoted again and your mother is in competition, anyways, with Erza. I can just hope, I guess, that I've raised you well enough to know how to take care of yourself and your friends. Then, when I admit to myself I haven't, I can just hope that the universe cares for you as well it has all the rest of us."

He'd looked away, before, but his eyes met hers again, watching them for a moment before he added something.

"I still can't believe you got tricked by a dumb dark guild. Brat."

"Shut up, Laxus!"

She'd got what she wanted, anyways, and left not soon after. Gajeel had showed up and was giving Locke a bit of a hard time, but kept patting the boy on the head who was still beaming and smiling. The sight made Haven frown.

But not as much as when Kai rushed up to her.

"So I guess," he began slowly, "you heard that Marin isn't just a dragon slayer, now, but also a ghost slayer? Well, I just thought that you should be prepared, anyways, for how strong she is now. A ghost! Can you believe it? I- Hey! Haven!"

But Kai wasn't shocked when he was shoved to the ground by the girl. Ravan, who was still speaking with Erza, glanced over, but didn't move to help his brother. Kai was on his nerves too.

Marin watched as her sister headed her way next and was actually a bit fearful she was going to get some of the same treatment and only huddled closer to her Aunt Ever. As Evergreen looked about ready to rebuke her though, just in preparation, but Haven only took a seat, reaching up absently to play at the gem that hung there. The sight of it made Marin curious, but it wasn't her who was given a chance to ask a question. Instead, the lightning mage did.

"How," she asked as, slowly, Marin began to relax, "do you slay a ghost?"

Marin wasn't quite sure herself. Still, with a grin, she found herself explaining it the best she could to her sister. For some reason, it made her much happier than the actual deed.

* * *

**That's it for this one, guys. Now that we got the first big job out of the way, we can continue on in the timeline. I'm not sure right now how I'm going to do it (either a series of one-shots or maybe an anthology type story) but it'll probably be a bit before I circle back around. The Remember Me series still lives though. Like always. **


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